Rogue's Kiss
by RavenRamsey
Summary: Rogue is killed by a vampire...
1. Sweet Death, Kiss me in the ear

This is a chapter from one of my lesser artistic endeavors but I love it nonetheless. It's where the rest of the story grew from. Thought you might like a peak.  
  
Merci noticed her right away for what she was. Her eyes picked up the aura right away in the sea of humans that passed by her. All the normals had a faint gray around their bodies that told her that there was nothing special about them. But her.  
  
She has a bright orange aura with flecks of green shooting through it. It outshined all the others around her. She blinked her eyes and saw only the gothic club she had strolled into. It was very dark but that didn't bother her. Being a vampire meant you could see what others didn't.  
  
Her long red hair hung around a pale face with deep blue eyes that stood out like twin oceans. She wore a black tube top, tight black pants with a belt made of silver loops. Big, black boots covered her feet with silver- plating on the front.  
  
She cautiously wound her way through the crowd never losing the girl from her sight. Black capes and false fangs passed her as she made her way across the floor. The girl had dark red hair with two white streaks in the front. She looked very young, maybe only 16. She wore a green see-through shirt and a black halter underneath. A black skirt, stockings, gloves and boots completed the look. She sat on a huge couch alone.  
  
Merci walked slow up to the couch and sat down beside her. Not too close but just close enough that no one would sit between them.  
  
The girl took a quick glance at Merci and then went back to staring at the floor where gothic kids danced slowly to the music.  
  
Compared with other vampires he had not been doing this long and still got nervous. She screwed up her courage and spoke.  
  
"Hi."  
  
The girl looked at her with a bored expression. "Hey," she eventually said before turning away again.  
  
Merci swore in her mind and blinked her eyes. The girl's aura shone dazzling, nearly blinding her she peered into it, trying to find something that she could use to get this girls attention. She stared hard. And found it.  
  
She wasn't sure if this was going to work but she quickly shot out a hand and touched her face. The girl saw it but wasn't fast enough to stop it. Her hand touched her cheek before the girl could bat it away. The girl spun around expecting to see the stupid bitch unconscious but she sat there with this shy smile in her face.  
  
"What are you?" the girl asked.  
  
"My name is Merci. What's yours?" she asked.  
  
The girl swallowed and said, "I'm Rogue. What are you?"  
  
"Just someone who wants to know you. Your very special you know that?" Merci ran cold fingers down Rogue's cheek but it wasn't the cold that made her shiver.  
  
"How do you know about me?" Rogue felt as if she were talking around a wad of cotton lodged in her throat. The cold fingers still traced across her skin, leaving impossible heat in their path.  
  
Merci slid closer to Rogue and said, "I can see things about people and I saw you were better then anyone in here," her head had come dangerously close to Rogue's, her breath misted over Rogue's face. Rogue wanted to close the distance so badly.  
  
"How can you touch me?" she whispered. Her hands trembled, rising into the air and tentatively rested on Merci's pale cheek, feeling the smooth skin and bones underneath.  
  
Merci lowered her head to Rogue's neck. She blew air, raising goose bumps wherever she blew. Rogue trembled in her arms. Merci's lips grazed Rogue's ear igniting fire in Rogue's belly.  
  
"Does it really matter?" Merci asked. She flicked out her tongue and licked Rogue's earlobe. Rogue nearly shrieked when she felt the wet tip on her ear.  
  
Merci smiled. It had been easy. She placed light kisses along Rogue's neck. Rogue clung to her as the sensation crammed her body. She was shaking desperately as the kisses trailed up her neck and across her cheek. They came to the corner of her mouth. She tilted her head and took the soft lips against her. Rogue moaned deeply into the kiss. She wrapped her arms around this enigma and let the feeling take her wherever they wanted.  
  
Merci slipped her tongue through Rogue's lips to twine with hers. The tongues battled against each other trying to draw the other into their wet cave. Rogue breath was racking through her and out her nose.  
  
Merci placed a hand under Rogue's shirt and the girl nearly lost it. Her stomach contracted and heaved against the cold hand. Rogue gasped into her first lovers mouth, moaning. Merci would have sworn that Rogue had just had an orgasm just be having a hand on her stomach.  
  
They made out on the couch with the crowd of people not taking any real notice, seeing things like this all the time.  
  
Rogue's hands touched Merci's bare stomach, touching the cool skin. Rogues own hands were like furnaces nearly scorching the cool surface of Merci's skin. Rogue's hand found is way inside Merci's tube top, thrilling at the weight she held in her hand, playing with the erect nipple.  
  
Merci slithered down Rogue's burning body, traveled up her skirt and wedged itself between her thighs. Rogue's hips instantly were in motion rubbing the tantalizing hand between her legs. Merci raised her hand a little and slipped it into the front of the stockings, she kissed across Rogue's face until she was licking and kissing her neck.  
  
She Rogue felt those cold fingers run through her sparse hair and enter her she came instantly moaning wildly. Merci smiled and sank her teeth into Rogue's neck, puncturing holes in her ceratoid artery and drinking the blood that gushed out.  
  
Rogue didn't notice the bite as she came for a along time, her hips rolling wildly against the finger inside of her, she continued to cum until she lost consciousness and was still.  
  
Merci continued to drink until she was sated and licked away the last drops. Rogue had stopped breathing.  
  
She looked at her sadly and secretly hoped that come next moonrise she would start to breath the oxygen she didn't really need.  
  
She kissed Rogue and said, "hope to see you soon." 


	2. Rogue's funeral Love New Life

They laid her body into the ground two days after she was found on the couch of the Goth club. Looking to everyone as if she was sleeping. The police investigation had hit a brick wall after they could not find the girl some witnesses claimed she had been making out with. It was hard to find one anonymous gothic girl out of the whole crowd of that club.  
  
The police were puzzled also by the fact that when people described they always ended by the same sentiment that she looked like the real thing. The two punctures in her jugulars didn't help to dispel the rumor that a real vampire had bitten her.  
  
The institute students and faculty crowded around Rogue's grave. The sky was overcast an angry gray with sad, fat drops of rain rolled down from the sky to touch, join, merge with the tears that fell on the polished black coffin. It had been kitty that had picked it out. Her shaky, choked voice said that she would have wanted to go down in true gothic style.  
  
The priest said the last rites, saying this was a tragedy that had a purpose, as all do in God's plan. The priest would never know how close he came to having all six claws through him or a bone spike sticking out of his throat,  
  
How could this be in the plan? To take Rogue away had nearly crippled the team. Nobody realized exactly how much she had made the house home until she was gone. Her witty comebacks and rare smiles were treasures they had not known until she was gone.  
  
The black coffin descended and was hugged by the greedy earth.  
  
When the first shovel of dirt kissed the surface of the box Kitty turned her head and screamed in pain into Logan's jacket. Scott and Jean clasped hands tightly. The fingers pulsed tighter with each thump of dirt to hit Rogue.  
  
Professor Charles Xavier placed his head on his joined fists and silently wept. Not being able to save this child. He didn't even know her name, letting her have her privacy about her identity.  
  
The gravestone was an archangel in flight on a stone pedestal with the words, "Here lays Rogue. You take a piece of us with you as you go."  
  
A full moon hung over the institute. A ghastly laughing face grinned down in hilarity from the moons face, following the sad dance of pain that was still playing out in its walls.  
  
Scott Summers lay on his bed staring at his ceiling not seeing the moon that laughed at him. To him it would be in watery shades of red. Tears streaked down his cheeks catching in his hair and ear lobes. The leader of the X-men cried for Rogue but also for himself and his failure. It was his job to lead them into battle, make them work as a team but most of all it was his job to keep them alive.  
  
"I failed," he choked out. "I'm so sorry, Rogue."  
  
Without a knock his door was opened and Jean Grey entered his room, closed the door and locked it behind him. He pushed himself up onto his elbow away from her to hide the tears he hastily wiped away.  
  
"Scott, look at me." Jean's voice drifted across the room. He could hear the great need in it. He could hear the pain falling from it as if sadness could cry.  
  
"What do you want, Jean?" he asked without turning, not able to stop the tide that was called as if the moon had drawn it like the waves of the ocean.  
  
"Look at me," she repeated.  
  
Scott's face crumpled for a second before he turned.  
  
Jean stood naked by his door. Her flawless skin shone in the darkness. Her hair cascaded down her shoulders and around her breasts. Her body trembled and tears squeezed themselves from the corners of her eyes, coursing around a mouth that quivered.  
  
Scott's own tears seemed to spring forth stronger now. Emotions twisted and twined inside him. He wanted to hug Jean and try to protect her from the pain she felt, make love to her to help them both through it but deep down a demon was telling him that he couldn't help anyone. He couldn't keep Rogue alive. What made him think he could save the woman he loved from anything? It flashed in his mind the time that Blob had kidnapped Jean and he had tried to save her and failed. It had been Rogue who had taken Blob out even when she was in the Brotherhood.  
  
"Scott," her voice quaked as she spoke. "I-I can't handle this. There's too much.too much to deal with and I can feel it I CAN FEEL IT!" She shrieked gripping her head and hair. Her face went a furious red as her body shook. She lost her strength and fell to her knees.  
  
Scott was up and over to her before he even knew he had moved. He held her as she cried the tears that she had not shed all day, keeping the perfect control that seemed to have reached the end of its limit. He rocked her and stroked her hair; giant sobs racked her body on the floor of Scott's room.  
  
They eased into lesser sobs and she drew back a little to look into his red shades. She would have given anything to see his eyes right then, to see the love she knew was always there but never took. She leaned forward into his embrace again and pressed his lips softly against his, with fear. She wasn't sure he would accept.  
  
At first Scott didn't, not wanting it to be like this, when she was so weak and vulnerable, where in the morning's harsh light she might not find him so desirable anymore.  
  
"Please, Scott," she whispered out and he gave in.  
  
He gently picked her up and carried her over to his bed and laid her down softly as if he may break this precious thing. She slipped under the covers and watched him. He slowly undressed as she watched him. Her tears had stopped the moment he had accepted her. His hard body seemed to glow in the darkness. His warm body slid under the covers with her and wrapped his arms around her. She pressed back, ravenous for the warmth and security that he offered. All the pain in her head floated away when he kissed her.  
  
A different kind of tears fell from Scott's eyes when she returned his kiss and stroked his body, almost immediately drawing him on top of her, feeling that hard part of him touch her, spreading her flow across fevering lips and thighs. He guided himself to her flowering opening and pushed gently inside her.  
  
"I need you, Scott," Jean gasped. "Please don't leave me."  
  
And there it was. The thought that had been the objective of that sadistic demon in his soul, to just give up, to leave, maybe even take the spot next to Rouge in that cemetery.  
  
That demon was killed by those 8 words forever.  
  
"I promise, Jean," he said as he slid in and commenced that age-old rhythm.  
  
Across town Rogue woke up to darkness and confinement. A fog clouded her mind and pain racked her body making her groan into the echoing darkness. She raised her hands to her head but they hit something right above her. She realized she was one her back and closed in. a memory swam out of the fog of the time she had been locked in a closet by Kurt as a joke.  
  
"Hey," she barely croaked. Her throat felt like sandpaper. "Let me out of here"  
  
Nothing happened and she ineffectually hit her palm weakly against the barrier. And repeated a little louder. Something was wrong.what was it? She fought the fog, trying to stare into the darkness but it was total.  
  
She found some space between her body and the wood above her to get her hand to her face and rub it briskly and pinch her cheek hard.  
  
That helped a little.  
  
This time she knocked with her knuckles, saying, "hey, let me outta heah!!" that's when she noticed what was wrong.  
  
The sound was completely wrong. She knocked again and listened. It wasn't that hollow sound like when you knock on a door, even a thick one. She really woke up now.  
  
She placed her palm on the surface and felt something like a cushion was attached to the roof of whatever she was in. another bolt of pain racked her body and stayed for longer this time. She screamed in the auger and hit a fist against the padding in protest. The pain intensified and she clawed at it, ripping it to shreds until she was leaving gashes in the wood that it was attached to. She barely noticed.  
  
Along with the pain was an instinct so strong she could not ignore it.  
  
"GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!"  
  
She began to scream in a mixture of pain and rage as she battered and clawed at the barrier at first only scratching it in deep gouges but then actually breaking it. Strength welled in her as she worked in fury, screaming the whole time.  
  
"LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!!"  
  
She reared back her fist again and struck the wood, going right through and into some soft substances. When she withdrew her fist, dirt rained down in her face.  
  
"No, god, please, NO!!" Rogue pleaded, not able to accept what she already knew.  
  
They had buried her. Six feet under. Left for dead. Something in her snapped and she went frantic, using her whole body to break the roof of her coffin and letting more dirt sift in.  
  
Anyone passing the newly made grave would have seen the new grass slightly cave in as if it were sinking into something. Lower it went until it began to bulge out again slowly and a hand broke through, clawing at the air and turf, trying to find purchase.  
  
A dirty body in a black dress dragged itself into the night and let out a piercing scream that could be heard for miles. People in nearby house gasped in shock as glasses at their dinner tables shattered at the sound.  
  
Rogue climbed her way out of the hole she made from the bottom up and fell on the ground, the pain lessened as she gasped at the cool air, not confined anymore.  
  
She slowly went to her knees and looked over her shoulder at the place she had just birthed herself. She saw the ragged hole and the gravestone with her name and the message.  
  
She grabbed her head and screamed again. 


	3. Tears Fears Getting up

Professor Charles Francis Xavier. Teacher. Telepath. Mentor.  
  
He held his hands up in front of him, staring up at the cloudless sky, ruled by the full moon. To see him was to think he was in deep contemplation, when in fact he was praying. Silver rays of moonlight spilled through the high window and into the dark study of the man who was all these things. The light gleamed on the steel parts of the chair he had been trapped in for the past twenty years.  
  
Not many people knew just how religious Charles Xavier was. He preferred to keep his faith a private matter and not try to put any of his students ill at ease. He sat now, trying to calm his tortured mind and conscious by asking forgiveness for his sins against others. Specifically the ones against Rogue.  
  
"Heavenly Father, forgive me for letting Rogue die when she still had so much life ahead of her. So much potential.."  
  
Hot tears traced the old lines on his face as he sobbed late into the night, never finding that forgiveness that he asked for.  
  
Kitty Pryde sat with her legs bent and pressed against her chest, chin resting on her knees. She was outside at the forests edge that bordered the school. The light wind played over her face, sweeping the young and tear- ravaged face. For the moment her tears had dried up and she sat numb and too exhausted to sleep. She didn't fool herself. She knew that there would be many more tears ahead for her. Just thinking about having to go back to the room that was now devoid of Rogue's presence. The rough bark of the tree dug into her back with the harsh sob that cut through her.  
  
"Rogue is gone," Kitty whispered into the night wind. "Like deal with it, okay?" the wind didn't talk back but carried her words away.  
  
She had done all she could do to make sure Rogue would have liked her funeral. A harsh laugh escaped her at the thought. If there was anybody she knew who would have been pissed off at having a boring, normal funeral it was her room.former roommate. It had been surprisingly easy to convince the professor to let her plan the whole thing, from the coffin to what the reception would be like.  
  
She had agonized most over what kind of clothes she was going to bury Rogue in. she was sure that if she buried Rogue in a white dress or something she would be haunted for the rest of her life.  
  
She finally decided on a black lace dress that reached her knees. And of course the black combat boots that were her trade mark around the house. It was easy to know where Rogue always was; you could here her heavy treads punishing the floorboards as she passed. Her make up was classic Gothic with black and purple colored nails alternating from stiff finger to stiff finger. Much to the undertakers chagrin she had painted those nails herself.  
  
Only when it was gone did everyone realize just how quiet the room was. So devoid of life. Rogue's life.  
  
The coffin had been easy as was the spot near a rear corner, away from most of the others. The headstone was maybe the only thing she would have had a beef with, Rogue always had a beef with something. She probably would have preferred a gargoyle rather then an angel.  
  
But it wasn't just a sense of responsibility that made her take this task was it. No. Maybe the professor had seen why too and let it go so easily. She needed to do this or she would not be able to do anything. The night that the police had arrived at the door was a merciless blow that still stung, like a punch in slow motion. It hadn't taken long for all the students to gather outside the professor's study. And it didn't take them long to see who was missing from the crowd.  
  
If she hadn't taken on the job of the preparations that punch would have knocked her out into nothingness. She didn't know what she would have done. But now with all the work done but life still moving on she couldn't hide anymore.  
  
Her stomach started trembling and it spread through her until the sobs clawed into her guts and ate her from the inside out. The pain welled and took her in its current, washing her away. Salty water ran her face into her mouth as she cried.  
  
When the wind dropped and cold arms reached around her and held her, she leaned into the comfort for a second before inhaling the scent of deep earth into her nose. She felt the dirt gritting against her skin and she opened her eyes. The tears blurred her vision so she could only hear the soft southern accent float on the wind.  
  
"Please don't cry, Kitty," it said. "I'm here again. Don't cry."  
  
Rouge's eyes snapped opened again. She sat bolt up right, the scream to be let out pushing at her lips. She looked around wildly and saw herself still in the dark graveyard, sitting up on the crisp grass beside a jagged hole in the ground.  
  
Her breath came in great gasps of terror, her chest rising and falling in her black lace dress she wore. Her eyes were held hostage by the hole in front of the grave with her name on it.  
  
There was a long moment when her mind was close to just chucking it all away. It said that it was ridiculous that she had clawed her way out her own grave. Stuff like that happened in Anne Rice but not in real life. Shit like that just didn't happen. So don't worry about it. Just curl up into a ball and ignore the world for a while, deal? And if that "awhile" turns into forever, so what?  
  
Her mind worked like some bloated machine that was over worked and overfed, the gears churning slowly.  
  
While her mind decided whether to shut down or not, she looked herself over. She was wearing a black lace dress that stopped short at her pale knees. Her shins glowed with paleness in the frail light before meeting with her favorite pair of combat boots. She raised her trembling hands to her eye level and stared at them. Shiny Black and purple polish alternated on her fingernails. Without the aid of a mirror (something she would never need again) she knew that her face was powered white with purple lipstick and black eye shadow. She gave a little grin.  
  
"Thanks, Kitty," she whispered.  
  
For what? Her mind whispered back.  
  
"For dressing me right," she answered back.  
  
Why would she dress you?  
  
With a shuddering sigh, Rogue answered her own question.  
  
"Because only she knows how I would want to be buried."  
  
Buried? Don't be ridiculous.  
  
"Stop!" she ordered herself. "Stop trying to block it out!"  
  
Her mind reluctantly obeyed her command. It had spent the last three years learning to block out unwanted thoughts and didn't know when to quit.  
  
When the admission was out the shock set in.  
  
She was dead. They had buried her. But she was alive. She sat here breathing. What had happened to her?  
  
And why could she see in the dark?  
  
She suddenly realized that she could see perfectly well in the night's darkness as if it was daylight. Shadows showed her their contents and the full moon nearly blinded her, as if she was looking into the sun. She slowly got to her feet and cried out as stiffness cramped her legs painfully. She managed to stay on her feet as her oxygen starved limbs unknotted themselves. She took a few shuffling feet towards the front gate, grimacing.  
  
When she could see the gate she rested in the shadow of a tree, some how comforted by the shadow that enveloped her. She knew that no one could see her but she felt as if she were part of the shadow now.  
  
Two older teens passed by the high wrought iron. Something seemed to flex in Rogue's mind, like a muscle flexing by reflex. Bright auras surrounded the teens, illuminating the night around them. Rogue didn't notice that she had stopped breathing as she stared at the two passing by. The boy had a bright red aura around his bulky, football player frame. A sense of intense sexuality ran through Rogue when she looked at it. But that wasn't the right word. She was looking into it. She felt that if she looked hard enough she could see right into him.  
  
His arm was around the waist of a girl half his size whose aura was a shifting chaos of colors, shifting from a bright blue, to a deep red, and a dazzling yellow. Feelings and images flashed through Rogue's mind and her very soul. A confusion of feelings like sadness, fear and sexual arousal reigned for a few seconds before she tore her eyes away and let the two pass. She heard their whispered conversation as they passed.  
  
"Come on, no ones at my place,"  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"Come on, everyone but us is doing it, I bet Stacy would do it."  
  
Threat!  
  
"I want to but I need time."  
  
"I've waited so long."  
  
The voices drifted away, leaving Rogue alone under her tree, feeling more confused then ever. She began to shamble towards the gate, getting one thought clear in her head. A chant that kept the growing hysteria at bay.  
  
"Have to get home. Have to get home," she breathed, forcing herself to walk. 


	4. Leaps of Faith

Ororo Munroe kneeled in the darkness of her room, candlelight making her brown body shine in the shadows. Her hands were held out in front of her as if in offering. One hand dipped to the floor and lifted an old long and curved knife, the handle carved to be a snarling lion about to rip into a preys flesh. Long fingers gripped the loin by the neck to hold the blade up to the candle light shining from her alter.  
  
"I offer myself, flesh to blood. Let Rogue's spirit know no harm in death, let no demons take her or trick her into darkness. I offer my life to make sure of this."  
  
A huge animals skull silently shrieked a grin at this, the amusement too much for it to hide its fanged grin. Two candles rose out of its eye sockets giving it a look of baneful life. Smaller bones decorated the surface of the alter in a pattern as ancient as Storm's tribe. The weather witch brought the blade to her arm and cut deeply into the soft skin. Blood pattered into the wooden bowl between her knees, filling it with her life's strength. Ororo's eyes closed in concentration. The spirits must truly believe that this offering was not genuine. She let her blood run into the bowl until it was half full and her head began to swim. She picked up a cloth, bandaged it around her arm, and then placed the bowl of blood in front of the skull.  
  
"Take my life if it would suit you," she challenged to the capering skull, her arms spread wide, blood soaking through her gash. "All I ask that Rogue come to no harm in her journey's ahead into that dark realm of death. I beseech you!"  
  
The skull just grinned it eternal grin back at her.  
  
Storm sighed and rocked back on her heels. She was suddenly very aware of her nakedness and covered her arms across her breasts. She had none done a voodoo ritual like this since she had been the weather goddess back in Africa. She had forsaken all this stupid superstition when she had boarded that plane with Charles Xavier all those years ago.  
  
But she still had brought the tool necessary just in case. A sort of security blanket against the unseen forces that sometimes prayed on your mind. Rogue's death had shaken her to no end. She had no had to deal with a loved ones death since her time in Africa when great fires would be lit and naked women and men danced wildly, driving back the demons that might take the spirit of deceased, even raise the body from death to only do evil. A ritual imbedded in Storm since birth. It seemed infinitely wrong for her not to help Rogue's spirit along in this way.  
  
Arms still wrapped around her body Storm silently wept, rocking and murmuring in repetition. Her heart beat in time with her words.  
  
"Be restful. Be restful. Be restful. Be restful."  
  
Ten miles stretched between Rogue and home. She didn't allow herself to think of the distance, only concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. She shunned the well-lighted streets of Bayville, for some reason preferring the dark back alleys and quiet back yards of sleep houses. She crossed grass and jumped high fences easily. She didn't allow herself to think at all just repeating, "have to get home, have to get home."  
  
She fell into one yard only to have a huge pit bull start to bark harshly at her. Red light pulsed around the animal in angry waves. Even clouds of red dust shot out of its mouth with each frenzied bark. She quickly ran across the yard and jumped over the fence.  
  
She stopped dead in her tracks and looked back. The dog had stopped barking at her but that didn't catch her attention. She looked at the high wooden fence. It was a good ten feet tall but she had just leapt over it, jumping, getting her foot on the top then hopping down. She almost felt like she had. she wasn't supposed to be able to do that. She fell to her knees as crisp grass scrunched under her weight. Her breath came her harsh gasps of fear. Her whole body trembled with confusion and fear.  
  
"What is going on?" she whispered. She hugged herself in the same way her teacher was at that moment. Her heart however was not beating. Ice ran through her as Rogue put her hand over her chest and felt nothing. She felt her neck.  
  
Nothing.  
  
She struggled hard with panic, fighting it off in the end to get up and continue.  
  
"Don't think about it. Just get home. Everything will be okay, just get home."  
  
Her mind flashed to her time in the Brotherhood. That places hadn't been a home and when she had joined the X-Men she didn't think that ritzy mansion would ever be either. But now it was all she had between her and dark terror.  
  
The miles passed in a haze of alleys and dim miles. A pale girl in a black lace dress, she passed the school, not giving it a glance. 3 miles to go. She passed people who never knew she was there. When she wasn't expecting those lights would blaze into life. They had started whispering to her. She shut it out like everything, waiting to deal with it when she wasn't so alone.  
  
She finally set her hand on the high wrought iron gates. She saw the long, curved driveway clearly with the big fountain. The mansion stood hugely in the night, a few windows still lit with sleepless people. These lights tugged at her heart, pulling he into its comforting light.  
  
She stepped up to the intercom on the gate and pressed the button, holding it down for three seconds. If you held it down it actually took a thumb print scan and let you enter if you were authorized. She held it for three seconds and waited.  
  
Nothing happened. She tried it again. still nothing.  
  
"Musta taken me outta the system." Rogue said to herself. They really had left her for dead. Claws sank into her heart as sorrow ripped at her. She was really dead. It seemed she hadn't actually known this until she was turned away from her home. The high-lighted windows now looked so very distant.  
  
She didn't allow herself to cry. Instead she reasoned, of course they had taken her out of the system. That would have been the first think Logan did. She shoved the pain away and gripped onto the rungs of the gate, looking up its height. It was a good 15 feet high.  
  
Could she jump it?  
  
The ten-foot fence had seemed like nothing. What's a few more feet?  
  
She hesitantly walked back into the dark away from the gate a good distance. She looked at the gate across the distance. The Professor's voice wondered into her head, a memory of a training session.  
  
"Remember," he had said from the controls of the danger room. Kitty had been having trouble phasing long enough to get through a series of traps. "If you truly believe you can do it."  
  
"Ah can do it." Rogue whispered into the night. She took a cautious step then broke into a full run, closing the distance to the gate in quick strides. The cement pounded against her boots, her dress billowing back behind her in the wind. When she got close enough she didn't doubt, she simply jumped, faith taking her.  
  
She shot straight up into the air, wind kissing her face as she rose into the air. The gate passed her eyes quickly until it no longer blocked her vision and all she saw was the mansion. She had cleared it. Her exhilarating happiness was clouded when she reached her peak and started to fall. She instinctively clenched to receive the fall and roll with it and stopped dead in the air.  
  
She floated there 15 above the ground. Her body slightly bobbed p and down in the wind, her boots dangling. Rogue was breathing in harsh gasps again that she quickly controlled.  
  
Okay, so she could fly now. Maybe it just was something to do with dying (cause that is what she did right?). Maybe when a mutant came back they got new powers. After all there were lots of instances of people appearing dead in the past and then waking up in their coffins and mutants have displayed new powers under stress and.  
  
Rogue realized she was babbling a la Kitty and shut her mind up.  
  
She instead concentrated on how she was going to get down from here. She didn't even feel like she was exerting any effort to stay a float.  
  
Experimentally she tried to just push herself down and found herself descending slowly to the ground. Rogue made no move to speed up the process but just let herself fall slowly.  
  
Her feet finally touched the earth and she stumbled a little when her body seemed to gain all its weight back.  
  
The thought of Kitty going though this and loving losing all her weight at once made her giggle a bit. She continued on. Something tugged at her, almost physically pulling her. She let herself be lead around the wide mansion and into the beginning of the woods. A blue trial of mist seemed to lead across the edge of the forest and around a tree where there was a great cloud of it. It whispered to her louder then any of the random ones she passed. Maybe because it was Kitty's she thought idly.  
  
She started. How did she know it was Kitty? She looked at the cloud and it seemed to tell her it was in that whisper. And she was in great pain.  
  
Rogue silently walked around the tree and saw the small girl curled in a ball and crying. Great love and longing flooded through Rogue. More then anything she wanted to comfort the poor girl. All thoughts of herself fled Rogue as she thought of all Kitty had been through. The blue mist surrounded Rogue and she knew it was Kitty who organized everything and that, yes, Rogue had died. Kitty had wanted to make sure that Rogue would have liked her funeral. Rogue also felt all the pain over losing her roommate.  
  
Rogue leaned down and embraced her long time friend.  
  
At first she felt Kitty relax into the grip and then the stiffening.  
  
Rogue saw Kitty's head slowly raise and look into her eyes. 


	5. A confusing welcome

The man called Wolverine sat against a wall in his dark room, staring at the blank wall, a beer resting between his feet. Only his eyes and shaggy hair were visible from behind the barricade of his arms resting on his bent knees. His room was Spartan bare. Only a bed, desk, and chair were its furniture. Very out of place was a Samurai sword hung on the wall. He knew how to use it but he didn't know from where.  
  
Never in his sporadically remembered life had he wished for his powers to just disappear. Never before in his life did he wish he could get drunk until he simply passed out and the world of hurt swam away.  
  
On the heels of that was the need to simply hop onto his bike and head for the mountains, countries, wherever! As long as it was away from the pain of this place! But he couldn't leave. What kind of man would he be if he left these people when they really needed him? He had been there to pull these kids out of the fire when they were about to get burned in this hateful world and he wanted to leave when they faced an enemy they couldn't blast or phase through? Not likely, bub.  
  
But Rogue was still dead. How do you apologize and protect from that? She had died on his watch, it was his job to teach her to stay alive in this world that would burn her at the stake if they could. How do you tell a crying girl that everything was going to be okay when you didn't believe that shit yourself?  
  
He had been through some fucked up things, he knew it even if he couldn't remember and this was one time when he couldn't just pop his claws and take out whatever it was that was bugging him. He would survive this though. They all would. This wouldn't be the first tine someone close to them would die. They were being brought up to fight for people who hated them against people who would never understand them.  
  
But he had still failed that girl.  
  
He drained his can of beer and took another, crushing it in his hand when the piercing scream drilled his sensitive ears. He was out the door before the can hit the floor.  
  
There are precious few times in this life when something can completely and utterly surprise you. Surprise parties? Whatever! After all you know that something is going to happen right? Getting raped? You knew that was a possibility when you went down that ally, right? Getting killed? Well everyone dies! Speaking of that, why am I looking at my dead best friend right now?  
  
Kitty's consciousness decided to stall for a moment and go off on its own metaphysical tangent.. that's the word right.when she had looked up to see Rogue's pale face hovering over her. Everything seemed to stand out in perfect clarity in that moment. Her hair was matted with dirt, face streaked with the face makeup she had applied and the muck of newly moved earth. The dress was no longer straight and prim but ragged and ripped. The arms holding her had more of those brown streaks against the pale skin. Dirt was packed under the nails and scraped off against the shirt Kitty wore. Kitty's neck creaked up to look into the eyes. They were so blank but seemed wise and young. None of this really got to her, maybe just the shock of the death (her? Death?) was still on her but she didn't scream it was only when that dead, raspy voice, as if it hadn't been used for so long spoke.  
  
"Please don't cry, Kitty," it said. "I'm here again. Don't cry."  
  
Dimly Kitty could hear a shrill scream that sounded suspiciously like it was coming from her. A look of fear and confusion came over the figure that looked like Rogue put her hand over Kitty's mouth to still the noise. Kitty went ballistic, to panicked to phase but fighting against the arms around her.  
  
Rogue had spoke the words as a kind of way to comfort Kitty. It was drilling right into her soul that Kitty was hurting over her so she had done what she would have done before. Hugged her and told her that everything was going to be all right. Once Kitty had gone into hysterics when a boy she had liked when out with another. Just one of those teen things that seem so big at the time but a weak later you wonder what you freaked about. Only Rogue had been able to calm the girl down. She wanted to do that now, help Kitty and do something normal, make herself feel normal.  
  
That thick blue mist that had almost been choking her suddenly went from that deep aqua to a pulsing gold that nearly blinded her and Kitty had screamed.  
  
The fear was like living thing, hysterical and beyond reason. It sank into Rogue in sickening waves of terror that confused Rogue only more then she was.  
  
Why is she afraid of me? Doesn't she want me back?  
  
The hand moved without her knowing to over Kitty's mouth in some effort to stifle the fear and scream. Her hand clamped over the mouth and squeezed lightly. The screams doubled and Kitty began to fight in pain as brutal strength ground her teeth against her soft lips and cut them open in six places, blood flowing out onto Rogue's palm.  
  
Rogue was just about to pull back in horror when three sharp points of pain gouge her through her back and through her stomach, severing her spine so she flops onto the three bloody points protruding through her front.  
  
Logan belted down through the hallways, passing by students who come out of their room and tell the Professor's inquiry that he was already on his way. He broke through the back door and into the garden that Storm kept. He quickly inhaled and caught Kitty's scent, now laced with fear. He sprinted towards the woods edge, the thought "not another" exploding in his head.  
  
He saw them. A dark figure in black hunched over the struggling Kitty, trying to shush her. The scent coming of this guy was heavy and evil. He didn't think anyone could actually smell evil but this guy did. The old rage hit him like a brick wall so he leapt forward, claws, extending before he registered that beneath the evil the person smelled familiar.  
  
His arms shot forward and shoved the tips of his adamantium-laced claws through the guy's spine, making the bastards legs go weak and slump forward. Only then did he notice the dress, the hair, and the underscent.  
  
"Rogue?" his voice croaked out into the ensuing silence.  
  
The dark head turned to show the pale face, blood dripping from the corner of the lipstick smudged mouth.  
  
"Hey, Logan," she said before closing her eyes.  
  
Scott and Jean laid in Scott's bed in the afterglow. Hands still subtly stroking every part of the other person, amazed at this coming together, longing not to lose it but it was shattered with the scream and Jean's stiffening.  
  
"what is it, Jean?"  
  
in a voice more dead then anything Scott had ever heard she replied.  
  
"Rogue's back." 


	6. Check Up

Wolverine again was bolting down the hallways of the Institute, this time carrying the ostensibly lifeless body of Rogue.  
  
It didn't make any sense to the old fighter. Half of his senses were telling him that she was dead but the other half insisted that she was alive. Especially the sixth sense that seemed to be an amalgam of all the others that told him when someone was watching him downwind or something was dropping on his head. This one screamed "SHE'S ALIVE!"  
  
Drops of crimson and bloody footprints tracked the floor as he ran with the girl in his arms, Kitty close behind.  
  
Beast was soon right beside him, sprinting for the med lab is huge leaps and bounds, making it there first and franticly setting up his equipment.  
  
"Get her on the table!" Beast shouted, stretching surgery gloves on his huge paws.  
  
Logan's whole front was smeared in the girl's blood as she was laid on the hard metal table. Without apology Beast reached down and ripped the girls blood soaked dress right down the middle from neck to pelvis. He asked what the hell was going on when the dress was laid bare.  
  
The shaky timber of Logan's voice nearly unnerved the reserved doctor.  
  
"I don't know, Hank! I fucking don't know! I went outside to see what was going on and I stabbed her! I didn't know! AND HALF-PINT GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" Logan screamed at the trembling girl by the door watching her previously dead and newly gutted friend about to be operated on. At the scream she jumped and ran out of the room to add her hysterical tears to the bloody boot prints in the hall.  
  
The Professor rolled down the hallway on silent wheels, not changed from his suit as of yet. When Kitty saw him she couldn't stop the hysteria from finding a voice.  
  
"Professor! Rogue's back but she's dead! And hurt and I don't know why she's here and not dead and I cant." here she broke down completely and fell to here knee's in front of her mentor, her head resting on his lap, crying in wracking sobs.  
  
Xavier was feeling the exact same confusion inside himself and had no answers for her. He simply stroked her hair and promised that he would find out what was happening. The rest of the students had woken up in the commotion, crowding into the medical hallway.  
  
"Everybody go back to bed," Xavier said, his warm calm washing out in his voice. "We will have an early morning meeting tomorrow in the living room. Now go."  
  
With the promise of answers in the morning they filed out.  
  
Scott, clad in boxers and a loose shirt hung back with Jean close behind him, clothed in what the Professor knew to be on of Scott's older shirts. Xavier's over attentive mind found this a little strange but then scolded himself for thinking on such a thing when a young girl was still crying in his lap.  
  
"Professor, what's going on?" Scott asked, the ever-present leader coming forward.  
  
"I am not sure, Scott," he replied. "Jean, could you please take Kitty back to her room." Jean quietly agreed and came forward to take Kitty back into the main house. Scott hung back still and looked at his teacher in some fear.  
  
"Is it really Rogue in there?" he asked quietly. Xavier looked up stunned at the boy and asked how he had known that.  
  
"Jean felt it when." a nervous clearing of his throat. "She said that it was her but then kinda went into a trance for a sec and said that she was wrong."  
  
Xavier regarded the boy silently for a second before he spoke slowly. "It may very well be. I have not gone in yet. Go to bed, Scott. There is nothing you can do here.  
  
Scott wanted to shout that there was plenty he could do but then realized that there really was nothing that he could do. He nodded and headed back down the hallway.  
  
A shrill scream pierced the air, making the Professor cringe. There was something not quite human about that sound.  
  
"TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!!!!"  
  
While Xavier took care of crowd control in the hallway, Beast examined Rogue's wounds, not letting the fact that the girl was supposed to be dead fetter with his job.  
  
"Clotting has already taken place." an amazed Beast mused, but he lost all hope when he felt the fragile, thin wrist. There was no pulse. A stethoscope told him her heart was lifeless in her chest. Wolverine turned away when Hank slowly shook his head.  
  
The three bloody puncture wounds were now just clean holes, crusted over with blood, black pits set against sallow skin. Beast laid one finger lightly on the furthest right and it twitched violently under his touch. The blue doctor jerked his paw back and gasped. Wolverine whirled around at the sound and both men watched in amazement as the formerly lifeless body of Rogue start to writhe and moan loudly, body twisting in apparent pain. Her bared breasts rolled with new gasps of air. The wounds were now twitching spastically, making smacking sounds like wet lips when they closed and opened.  
  
"Oh my stars and garters," Beast quietly exclaimed as the holes began to shrink in their exercises. Soon they are just puckered little dots across her stomach, like miniature belly buttons.  
  
The twin green eyes flew open in very much apparent life, staring right into the harsh fluorescent lights of the overheads. The scream she let out was of pure pain and agony. The speed with which she flew off the bed and crouched in the furthest corner took even Logan by surprise. Just a streak of black cuts the air before she is screaming in barely understandable words.  
  
"TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!!!!"  
  
Both men looked completely lost at sea before the Professor rolled through the swinging doors, quickly noting what was going on, taking images from both men's minds. Times like these don't call for politeness.  
  
"Hank, turn down the lights if you would," Xavier said loudly in the hysterical noise. The blue physician bounded over to the wall and turned off all but one set of lights, the furthest away from the girl.  
  
She immediately quieted down and just crouched in a tight black ball in the corner, shivering violently.  
  
Xavier rolled a little closer to the trembling creature, calling her softly. "Rogue?"  
  
The head swept up and looked at him through threads of hair, perfectly still. She could have been confused for some horrible statue made to resemble terror.  
  
Logan recognized the look. 'Gone tharn." He silently sent to Xavier. Those times when animals just stopped in front of your car. They go tharn.  
  
Wolverine makes a subtle shift of weight. Nobody else would have noticed it but Rogue shrank back harder against the wall and shuddered.  
  
"Logan, would you please wait outside," Xavier asked.  
  
It broke his heart to do it but he did as requested and walked through the swing doors. Rogue visibly relaxed and turned her gaze back to Xavier.  
  
He knew it was a stupid question but he had to start somewhere, "are you okay?"  
  
In a strained, croaking voice, the Rogue-thing answered, "no, ah'm not alright."  
  
"So I see. Would you come back over to the table and let Hank look at you? See how you are?" the gentleness was a caress. Soothing telepathic waves sent through the air to calm the girl. Whether they worked or not she slowly got to her feet and came back, holding the front of her dress together in a clenched fist.  
  
When she had perched herself on the table, Beast walked slowly over to her and gently took her wrist checking her pulse, heartbeat and blood pressure. He looked at her newly formed scars, squinting in the dim, which should have taken a year to look as they did now. Her pupils were shined (accompanied by a short scream) and temperature taken. All the while he talked quietly asking her to open her mouth or hold out an arm. The last exercise was an odd one. He got a mirror from a drawer and held it in front of her face, more down so she couldn't see just how ragged she looked.  
  
"Just breath normally," she did but the Professor failed to see the point of this test. After a minute Beast said all right and pulled it away. "Lie down, dear," Beast said, gently urging her down. "You need rest. Would you like to sleep?"  
  
Rogue simply nodded but just laid on her side, staring at the wall, her mind a pleasant blank.  
  
Beast looks over at Xavier in a silent question. The professor nods and tentatively reaches into the girls mind. It was blank but only the exhausted and overloaded blank that was to be expected. But underneath it all was something bigger. Darker. And very deadly. Xavier tore himself away before he wanted to examine it and lulled the girl to sleep. Her green eyes shutting down.  
  
The two men watched the girl who seemed to have aged ten years look for all the world like just a 16-year-old girl without a care in the world.  
  
"Good lord, Hank, what is going on? The Professor breathed. The question was rhetorical but Beast answered anyway.  
  
"If God had anything to do with this he did a rather incompetent job," he had been gazing at Rogue but not looked at the man in the wheelchair. "Rogue has no pulse. No heart beat. No blood pressure. Her eyes are hypersensitive and her core temperature is about 80 degrees. When I placed the mirror in front of her face I was just going on a whim but it gave me results anyway. No fog condensed on the mirror, meaning no breath and something so frightening I almost shed all my fur.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Professor, she has no reflection." 


	7. First Blood

7 long days had passed in the mansion following the return of something that looked like Rogue.  
  
Beast's medical journal:  
  
Subject: Rogue  
  
In the time that I, Henry "hank" "beast" McCoy have had to see to our recent returnee, Rogue, I have run every test I could think of short of an autopsy.  
  
Although isn't that what you do with dead people?  
  
Her examination results have been the most baffling things I have ever encountered in my life and that includes puberty and had grown just a little more hair then was really normal.  
  
Her blood testing showed that even though it can't be flowing since her heart never beats, that it was undoubtedly alive. White blood cells, those little soldiers against disease, have quintupled, while red blood cells were way down to the point of anemia. Right now her immunity puts Logan's to shame.  
  
Her skin is now pale all by itself without the aid of her normal make up. Her eyes have sensitivity for light that is beyond human. I am very sure the girl could now see in the dark very well now.  
  
A CAT scan shows new brain activity in sections of the mind that are always dormant in another person. Rogue explained to me in hushed tones about the auras she sees. I believe that she is seeing some kind of visual telepathy that allows her to see other people's emotions. What else could this girl see if she wanted?  
  
What is this girl?  
  
***************  
  
Beast paused here in his recording to look at the clock. He was dismayed yet unsurprised to see that it was three hours past dinnertime and he had not eaten in about 8 hours. He sighed and leaned back, realizing just how hungry he was. Hadn't Edison starved himself because he could never tear himself away from his work? If it wasn't for his fair wife bringing him food he might have died somewhere between the light bulb and phonograph.  
  
A knock at the door pulled him out of his hunger-induced reverie.  
  
"And suddenly there came a tapping.." Beast mused before hailing them to come in.  
  
Ororo Munroe swished in the door, wearing one of her long, loose dresses. In her hands she held a tray laden with food and drink. Beast had a sudden longer for that food that bordered on the erotic.  
  
"Ah lovely, Edith! You save me from myself again," Beast said before taking the heavy tray from Storm and digging into a rare steak with mounds of mashed potatoes.  
  
Storm held back a giggle at seeing a blue monster tearing into a steak while holding his pinky finger out.  
  
"And just who is Edith?" she asked while the steak disappeared.  
  
"Just Thomas Edison's lovely wife who saved him from his own obsessions," Beast said around some spuds. He guessed that he could overlook this one slipup of his.  
  
"Well, I would say that you both have something to obsess about," Storm said looking over Beast's notes.  
  
Dinner already polished off he pushed the empty tray away. "Yes, I wish that him or Einstein was here with me to figure this out but it is only I to face this," he sighed.  
  
Storm nodded. She sympathized with this poor man. They could not just walk into a major medical institution and have them help Beast with the blood tests and electrographs. Not unless they wanted Rogue, maybe all of them, to be lab rats for the rest of their lives.  
  
"What have you found out today?" she asked looking over medical readouts that might as well of been in German.  
  
"Besides that she seems able to fly, can now seem to touch and seems to be dying?" Beast said sarcastically. He looked into the woman's shocked eyes and regretted what he said.  
  
"I'm sorry, Ororo. I am just so worried about her. I don't know how she came back to us but she is fading fast. Her blood is breaking down, red blood cells dying faster all the time. She is lying down there in sub basement three slowly dying and I can't do anything!" a huge blue fist slammed down onto the table, rattling pencil holders and medicines.  
  
A gentle hand fell on his shoulder and squeezed gently.  
  
"Beast you can not blame yourself. Some force brought her back to us and may decided to take her away again. We can only wait and see." Storm said softly.  
  
Beast gave a wry smile and said, "that sound very superstitious for you, Ororo."  
  
Returning the smile. "Somebody died and came back, Hank. Doesn't that make you think that there is more to life then cells and blood types?"  
  
"Sorry, Storm. I am a staunch atheist and not changing now. She came back by a scientific way and I'm not going to let her die again," he said, and then changing the subject, "has she eaten at all today?"  
  
Storm shook her head. "No, she still reacts badly to food but I sent down some juice with Evan for her."  
  
***************  
  
Evan Daniels rode the elevator down to basement level three. His body was buzzing with adrenaline and apprehension. This was his first time going down to see her. So far the only others were Kitty, Scott and Jean. All the others had been to confused or scared to go see her, Evan included.  
  
The professor had all the students come into the living room the morning after all the ruckus had started and told them how somehow Rogue was back and alive but very weak. When all the questions started flying at him he had just hushed everyone and said that he knew as much as they did right now and would tell them when he found out.  
  
So far they hadn't heard anything except that she was very sensitive to light and had to live in the basement, away from all natural light since it hurt her.  
  
"This is so fucked up!" Evan said as the elevator stopped and the door opened to the long hall and storage areas lining it. The lights were very dim and he had to actually search for the knob later.  
  
He went to the fourth door on the left and knocked. "Yo, Rogue! You in there?"  
  
***************  
  
Inside Rogue heard the knock but was too busy living in the world in her own world. The pain was now almost constant. Pain racked her body in dull waves of emptiness as if her whole body ached for something that she couldn't describe. It had gradual gotten worse as the week past and food made her sick. She knew she was going die. She just wished she knew why?  
  
The knock came again with the voice calling again.  
  
"Yeah, come in."  
  
In her pain haze she could hear the sudden deepening of breath of the person outside and see a kind of yellow-orange dust sift under the door. A hand groped for a knob and tuned it to open the door.  
  
There was Evan immersed in that sunset mist coming off him like steam. She supposed it was because he was scared. It wasn't the first time she had seen it since she had returned.  
  
He held a large bottle of orange juice in one hand, seeming to peer into the dark space that her bed was in.  
  
"You there?" he asked  
  
"Yeah, close the door." It still amazed her how she could see so well in the dark and other couldn't. It was like noticing that you were blind all your life and not knowing it.  
  
Evan did close the door was some reluctance and there was a brief spark of fusia as he did. 'Wonder what that was?' she mused in her haze. Machismo maybe? A more serious rack hit her and she groaned.  
  
"Are you all right?" Evan asked.  
  
"Everyone asks me that," she answered, curled up in a ball.  
  
"Just worried I guess," Evan mumbled, stepping forward into the nearly total dark and seeing some dark shadow lying on the bed that was moved down her.  
  
"Yall can stop. I'll be gone again soon," she murmured.  
  
The blast of yellow with grass green was quite beautiful in his mist. "What the fuck do you mean by that?"  
  
"Ah'm dying, Ev. That's what." She said simply.  
  
Evan quickly stumbled his way to the bed and kneeled by it, fumbling for a hand in the dark. When his hand touched the cold, smooth, naked skin he flinched back.  
  
"Its okay," she whispered into the dark." That one touch had woken her up out of her daze and wired her nerves. Suddenly she could smell him so well. Everything from the soap he used to something that smelled faintly metallic but wonderful still. When the hand took hers again she reached down and pressed her lips against the rough skin. It had taken many falls off a skateboard but it was still wonderful. Such sensations from just another person. The feel of his skin on hers. The mind bending taste when she flicked out her tongue.  
  
Evan's breath caught in his throat and wouldn't pass the lump that was lodged there. The skin tingled with electric shocks as Rogue kissed and licked the back of his hand. He noticed his cock stiffening quickly in his shorts.  
  
Out of the dark an almost glowingly white hand glided over his cheek, wondering at his skin before clasping the back of his head to pull him forward.  
  
Rogue pulled Evan's head to hers, drunk on touch and taste of another's skin. Death was so close to her, time to live she thought.  
  
Can touch have sound? The first contact of lips to lips was like a sonic boom in her head, making her nearly explode by just this little touch. His scent invaded her nostrils and hit her brain with the force of a nuclear device. Blowing away everything in its path. The pain and confusion fell before it.  
  
Strength seemed to flood her body again. She slid off the bed and fell right onto Evan on the floor. He moaned in surprise but let her take him down in the dark room.  
  
She couldn't get enough of him. Her mouth was everywhere, tasting his neck, eyes, hair, neck and teeth. Her hands found every part of him she could, playing with erect nipples and rippled stomach. A cool hand slid into his shorts and found him hard and ready to burst, such heat nearly burned her icy hand but she grasped it and stroked it happily.  
  
Suddenly he tasted so much better to her as she stroked him, his passion flaming in her hand and her own center dewing over when his own hand found its way up her skirt and felt her kinky hair and only part of her that was hot.  
  
When her button was touched her very soul seemed to break out of her body and shatter everything. Dimly she was aware that two teeth in the roof of her mouth started to lengthen and sharpen.  
  
She felt the hot cock in her hand pulse harder and burst in her hand and that metallic and wonderful scent hit her. Her head fell down onto him, fangs bared. They sank into Evan Daniels neck at the peak of his orgasm and she began to drink.  
  
The body under her flopped and fought but being starved for all of her new life had made her hunger to great and she took her fill before he had even finally stopped fighting and just stopped.  
  
Rogue's head flew up, chin smeared and white teeth crimson, screamed into the room. The power she felt was nearly unendurable when it surged through her. She looked back down at Evan in confusion for a second at what she had done.  
  
When she let herself see, she screamed again. 


	8. First Fight

Rogue's throat seemed to rip itself apart from the force of her cry.  
  
She wasn't even sure what she was screaming for! Was it because of the sudden rush of strength that surged through her, lighting up her very cells with new energy? That she had just killed and the sudden pain of guilt and loss were driving her slowing insane? Maybe because Evan now seemed to be in her very mind screaming in the same voice? Perhaps even the fact that when she had bitten him with her new teeth she had the most sky-ripping orgasm imaginable? So many things were going on inside of her at once that it seemed that she either scream or die.  
  
The scream slowly tapered off as the most intense part passed. She could still feel inside her head, shrieking in the horror and fear of his last moments. She felt a massive blow to the front of her head that send her reeling back, the newly split blood flying off her lips and chin.  
  
It was as if someone was trying to fight their way right of her head. Her whole body contorted in pain. In terror she looked down to see her skin start to bulge and spikes of bone ripped right out of her skin in jagged stakes. Blood fountained from these protrusions. The piercing pain through her on the floor and new stakes broke under her weight. She screamed again when she felt them start to erupt from her face.  
  
It was like Evan was trying to kill her from the inside out.  
  
If she didn't stop him he would probably succeed. There was a small part of her that wondered if maybe it wasn't right to just let him. She could feel his anger at having died. And the sorrow. She had never had so much of a person insider her head before. It was like she had his soul.  
  
Instinct and hours of practice with the Professor took over then. She pictured his presence in her mind; it was like a dark storm cloud when the image came, throwing lightning bolts at her. When one struck, a new fragment of calcium ripped from her skin, spraying more of her blood (his blood? She thought dimly) into the air. She saw herself making a giant box around the cloud, trying to contain it. This was much harder then the other times she had quieted the voices in her head. Those never fought her.  
  
Evan did with everything he was. Rogue dimly thought that he must get this from his aunt as this furious storm cloud tried to strike her down. She made the box though and imprisoned Evan inside. The shrieks of anger being shut off.  
  
When Rogue opened her eyes the shards of bone were sinking back into her body, the wounds closing seamlessly behind them.  
  
She slowly got to her knees. She tested herself and found that she wasn't tired at all after the hardest fight she had ever had. Her clothes were ripped and shredded from the assault of Spykes power. She wondered if she still had it?  
  
She raised her hand in front of her face willed. All powers worked just by will.  
  
Five shards of bone came up, each from a fingertip. She willed them back and they vanished. She looked herself over for damage, knowing she was only delaying the time she would have to look at Evan.  
  
Eventually she did and choked back a sob.  
  
His skin, once a smooth brown was now ashen and gray. Twin dark holes stood out against the gray of his neck. A sudden flash of herself drinking greedily from those holes made her insides knot up. He was very dead and inside her mind now and she had his powers.  
  
She could touch but it caused her to drink a person's blood and steal their soul.  
  
"well that's not too high a price to pay, no is it?" she said with a little forced smile.  
  
That's when she leaned over and threw up.  
  
She started to sob even before the red puke finished its flow from her stomach. She leaned over the mess and let her tears flow down her face into the mess. She then crawled to the furthest and darkest corner of the room, curled up into a ball and cried until she fell asleep. 


	9. A Small Debate

Kitty Pryde was making her way down the hallway towards the elevator that would take her down to the subbasement levels. She had just heard that Evan had gone down there to take Rogue some juice and it may help her out to have more then just one person visiting her all the time. Maybe she could even get all the others.  
  
"Katchzen! Vhere are you going?" Kurt asked frantically, racing to catch his friend/ultimate crush.  
  
"I'm going down to, like, see Rogue. What's your problem?" asked with an annoyed expression. Kitty had been sure that if anybody would go down to see Rogue it would be Kurt but he didn't even like to talk about her as if she were still dead.  
  
"You can't go down there! She is nosferatu! She may hurt you!" he went on frantically, trying to pull her away from the elevator door that was hidden behind a wooden panel.  
  
"Nosferatu? Wha.. OH, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE, LIKE, FUCKING KIDDING ME, KURT!" Kitty screamed at the blue demon, wrenching her arm away after remember what a nosferatu was. You didn't share rooms with Rogue and not know that it meant vampire.  
  
"Katchzen. Listen to me." Kurt pleaded.  
  
"NO! I will not!" Kitty shrieked, so angry her vision seemed to blur. "Of all people.I would think you would, like, understand that being scared of her is not the answer!"  
  
"No, kitty," Kurt said very seriously, accent thickening. "I am not afraid of her. I'm afraid of what's inside her. That's not Rogue down there anymore! There maybe some of Rogue still in that body but it's quickly being eaten away. I know this! My family tells stories of it."  
  
Kitty, calmed down but the sheer stupidity of what she was hearing said, "You've been watching way too much Buffy! What is wrong with everybody? Yesterday I heard Ray saying to Jamie not to go down into the basement levels or Zombie Rogue would eat his brains and now you."  
  
"Vell how do you explain it then?" Kurt cut in. "Katchzen, Rogue died, was autopsied, embalmed and then buried. How do you explain that thing sitting down there? I mean, really, Kitty! That's NOT normal!"  
  
Kitty just stood there glaring at him, finally acknowledging the fact that she had purposely not thought about how it was possible Rogue was alive and breathing. Her mind tried to tell her this but she pushed it away and replied.  
  
"And what about you, Kurt? Are you normal?" the stricken look on Kurt's face told her she was hitting far below the belt but she didn't care.  
  
"Katchzen, don't go there," Kurt said in some warning.  
  
"Well, like, think about it Kurt. Are you normal? Am I? Is anybody in this damn house 'normal'? Answer me! Are we?" Kitty stated.  
  
"Kitty, that's not the point," Kurt started.  
  
"Yes it is," Kitty calmly cut off. "All of a sudden something weird happens that we can't explain and everyone gets, like, scared. It's just like how all those people in the world will feel about us when we come out. They won't understand and they'll be scared but we're like supposed to show them there's nothing to be scared off. Kurt, how can we do that if we can't even accept one of our friends back when she needs us?"  
  
Kurt didn't think he had ever felt so ashamed of himself as at that moment. This guilt trip had been one journey he wouldn't return from for awhile. He had to admit that when he had heard of Rogue's return the first thing that had come into his mind was all those stories the elders had told of olden times, of monsters and demons that prayed on people. And the biggest shame- hit of the whole thing was that he should have known better because of who he was and how he looked.  
  
"Alright, I surrender," Kurt said guiltily. "I don't know what came over me. Just the old childhood training I suppose."  
  
Kitty let her anger flow away in a deep breath and said, "its okay. I guess I'm a little scared too. I haven't even thought how all this was possible."  
  
"I don't think even the teachers really know," Kurt said. He looked timidly at the wooden panel. "Are you still going down there?"  
  
Kitty looked at the panel again, totally forgetting the reason she was here and nodded. "Yep. Wanna come along? Evan's down there."  
  
Kurt swallowed hard and said "Yeah, its time I did I suppose."  
  
They both approached the panel and slid it aside into the wall. A metal door was shown with a thumb print analyzer beside it. Kitty placed her thumb on it for three seconds then took it away. Kurt flinched a little when they heard the faint hum the elevator ascending upwards towards them. When it reached and opened they stepped inside and proceeded down. Kurt was visibly shaking in his fur even though he knew it was nonsense.  
  
"Just remember not to turn on any lights, they hurt her eyes" Kitty said in a nonchalant tone.  
  
"Kitty," Kurt whined. "Your not helping!"  
  
"Sorry," Kitty said a little sarcastically.  
  
They stopped at the third level down and stepped out of the opening doors. Kitty could hear Kurt breathing heavily as the approached the room. Kitty shot a look at Kurt to make sure he wouldn't do or say anything stupid she turned the handle and opened the door.  
  
The room was very dark of course, which was too be expected. But what wasn't expected was a dark form lying on the floor in the middle of the room. The two students stepped into the room and looked down, already knowing in the back of their heads who it was. All that night training with Logan kicking in.  
  
From the first moments of dumb shock that all people feel when the first see a friend dead, Kitty thought "all that guilt tripping on Kurt just down the drain."  
  
Kurt seemed to kneel down in extreme slow motion and take Evan's grayish wrist in his three furry fingers.  
  
"He's dead," Kurt said simply before he keeled over in a dead faint. 


	10. Gone Again

Scott and Jean sat at the kitchen table not talking but then again they didn't really need to. After all that had happened that had found it more comforting to speak mind to mind, not having to bother to hide behind the facades of the oldest.  
  
Thoughts like wind passed from one to the other, sometimes so faint that neither was sure where it came from.  
  
"So what do you think?"  
  
"I think she's a vampire."  
  
"Never thought you would be superstitious."  
  
"Neither did I, but something like this changes views."  
  
"Well, I can't change, least for me. I have to be firm."  
  
"Just don't break okay?"  
  
Jubilee came into the room, opening the fridge before shrieking "ewwww" and turning to them.  
  
"Do you guys know why there's plate of mold in the fridge with a label?"  
  
The two got up to join and were about to bend to look when a great crash came from right behind them.  
  
**********************  
  
Rogue woke up to Kitty's frantic screams for Kurt to wake up, please wake up!  
  
The first thing she really noticed though was that she felt stronger then she had ever felt in her life. Her senses were so sharp that she could actually hear Kitty's heart racing in her chest so fast that it seemed about to burst.  
  
"Kitty," she heard herself say before thinking as she got up. "If ya don't calm down, yer hearts going to blow a gasket!"  
  
When she stepped out of the shadows Kitty froze with fear. She was crouched on the floor, shaking Kurt by his shoulders. Her eyes were wide, blank saucers. It was amazing how Rogue noticed all the little details now. The way that nine of Kitty's hair strands had escaped her ponytail and fell across her cheek in whispers of sound. The tiny flecks of blue in Kitty's brown eyes were quite pretty once you knew they were there.  
  
Rogue's eyes swept the floor and fell on the dead, grayish Evan. Flashes of the murder, and psychic fight slammed back into her mind from the haziness of dreams.  
  
Rogue sank to her knees by Evan and took his limp, cold hand in hers. The tears were hot and salty on her skin as they fell to her lips. They washed rosy tracks through the smears of blood still there.  
  
"I killed him." Rogue whispered, raising her eyes to Kitty.  
  
It was strange really that he was. Rogue could still remember the way he would sometimes skate too close to her and she would flinch away for his own good, yelling at him for it. One time she had yelled at him that she would kill him if he did that again. He never did.  
  
"But I did," she whispered to herself, tears falling into her mouth.  
  
Rogue caught Kitty's movements and looked up to see her slowly backing out of the room, the blank terror screaming silently. Her chest expanded and retracted sharply with her breath.  
  
"Kitty, no, I wont.would never.not you!" Rogue stammered hysterically, getting to her feet.  
  
"Stay.away.from.me," Kitty gasped out with each breath of fear. She hit the wall and started to slide towards the door.  
  
Rogue was about to respond when Kurt started to stir on the floor. His yellow eyes slowly opened and the first thing he saw was the blood-streaked features of Rogue.  
  
He hitched breath and let out a jarring scream of fear. Rogue flashed out her hand on instinct to still the noise. Her hand landed on her mouth and felt the familiar split second of heat that announced teleport.  
  
She felt herself falling through the air and crash onto something hard that collapsed under her and Kurt's weight. Her head snapped up into the glaring light of the kitchen's 60-watt bulb. Blinding colours blinded her from the glare but she could see Scott, Jean and Jubilee backed against the cupboards. Kurt was screaming under her as he struggled to get free. Absently she could feel his heart and blood pounding in is body. Would she always know when someone was scared? What could she do? She killed Evan! What was going on?  
  
Too many things were happening at once. Dimly she could here Jubilee begin to scream at seeing her. Jean was saying something that wasn't reaching her in all this light and noise. Her mind was exploding! It didn't help when the auras came back and she looked down at Kurt, only to be blinded further by the screaming yellow. When she looked at the other three she saw the same thing. She knew by now what this colour meant. All this rampant fear directed at her. And they were right to be. This wasn't like when she just had that poison skin and had to cover up, this was her urge to kill them and drink, make herself stronger and she didn't know where this feeling came from.  
  
The thought of vampire swam on the edge of her vision but she kept it at bay, not letting it fall onto her. She couldn't be damned. What did she deserve for that?  
  
She fled. To the people in the room, all they could see was this streak of black head out the door as if the shadows kept her safe from eyes.  
  
In a daze she found her way out of the house and down the long drive way. When she got to the fence she leapt and cleared the fence, hitting the pavement on the other side running.  
  
Over the last week, she had let her mind slowly heal itself and remember in its own time what had happened at her death. That girl, Merci, had bit her, she had died, she had come back, and she had killed Evan.  
  
"You know what this means you are." Her mind whispered  
  
"No, I'm not, fuck that, not real," she panted as she ran to nowhere, just running.  
  
"Yeah you are. You could face being dead so face being the living dead,"  
  
"No.this is too much.too big.." She gasped running faster and faster, until everything became a blur around her.  
  
"No its not. You've faced everything else life has chosen to show you, face this," her mind said, starting to sound more like the Professor as it spoke.  
  
She tried to stop running but her momentum carried her off her feet and right over the edge of a quarry pit.  
  
She tensed and when she opened her eyes saw herself floating over a great drop. The only quarry she knew was right on the edge of town about a mile away. She had just run a mile under a minute. Nothing of Pietro standards but way beyond anything human.  
  
She floated there. Letting her mind clear itself. A half moon hung over her, the rays warming her face.  
  
She felt at peace.  
  
Her tongue searched out her canines and went across them, feeling the slight points that she knew could grow.  
  
"I'm a vampire," she said to herself.  
  
"I'm nosferatu!" she said louder  
  
"I'M A FUCKING BLOOD SUCKER!!!" she screamed into the night, voice echoing in the pit below her.  
  
And here, away from the mansion and all her friends, only herself to look to for comfort she added "and it ain't so bad."  
  
She really tried to believe this. 


	11. The Hunt

Usually sitting on top of a fifty-foot crane would seem like a bizaar thing to Rogue it seemed like a very fine thing. It's amazing how the simple ability to fly just changed your perspective on the world. Suddenly the ground didn't seem so low and the sky not quite so high.  
  
It had taken her three hours of sitting up here to finally really come to terms with what she had done. She could finally totally accept that she had killed Spyke, drained him of not only his blood but also his powers and maybe even his very soul. She could feel him locked away in his prison far into the black depth where she kept all errant thoughts and feelings. Everyone called her the ice queen for being so shut down. Well, let them have someone else's random thoughts flood their minds and then they can talk!  
  
Rogue took a deep breath and got back on track. Spyke's death was and was not her fault. She did kill him but she didn't know why and until she was sure why she did she couldn't come to a real decision on what to do. She couldn't go back to the mansion until she knew. Was she a real life vampire?  
  
She remembered that girl at the Goth club, with the long red hair and pale face. When she had touched Rogue she had just short-circuited and almost pounced on her. She couldn't deal with the lesbian aspect yet, that could wait. What she needed to do was find that girl. The one who had killed her and made her what she was. Was she maybe some kind of mutant with a really fucked up power? Rogue stilled the tide of question and concentrated on the problem of finding her, this girl..  
  
The sky suddenly filled with clouds and a great storm broke out. Rogue closed her eyes and said, "I'm so sorry, Ororo."  
  
**************************************  
  
Storm's flight down the hall to the elevator seemed to be in slow motion even though she knew she was running as fast as she could. It seemed the frantic and somber words given to her only seconds before rolled through her head a thousand times. Kurt crying and screaming "she killed him! She killed him!" The Professor saying that something had happened to Evan. She hadn't waited for the rest.  
  
The elevator seemed to take years to go down the three floors.  
  
When she came out of the elevator a gale force wind comes with her. It breaks down the steel door as if it was straw and she stands in the doorway, seeing her nephew in the light from the hall. Ororo Munroe looked down at his still form, her bare feet pattering loudly in the quiet room, kneeling down beside Evan.  
  
"No.Evan?.no.please wake up." she crooned, a sick smile falling on her lips as she took his head into her lap, stroking his hair and gray, lifeless face. Milky white teardrops fell form her eyes onto his face and soaking into his hair.  
  
"Please, Evan.you cant die.your aunty needs you.please." her voice cracked completely. A rending wail of pain broke the quiet in the small room. With it a storm to match her heartache blanketed the Bayville area. Fat teardrops fell from the sky and the clouds broke the air with rolling thunder. Bright lightening flashed out of the sky to scar the earth in imagined vengeance for the wounded weather goddess.  
  
The great storm shook the entire house as Charles Xavier rode down the elevator. The houses power system would keep it moving for him but he dreaded what he would find in the basement. Even down here he could feel the sudden storm crashing against the house. The door slid open and he wheeled out. When he reached the room he saw the weather goddess's trembling back. Her sobs seemed to echo so loudly.  
  
He rolled into the room in silent wheel and laid his hand on her slender shoulder.  
  
"Why, Charles, why?" she asked still stroking Evan's head.  
  
"I don't know but be rest assured that I will find out. I'm so very sorry," the Professor said.  
  
"She has to die, Charles. Rogue has to die," Ororo said quietly, her sobs evaporating and calm reigning once again.  
  
"Now, Ororo." he started, trying to reason.  
  
"I know what you will say, Charles," Storm said, finally resting his head back on the ground. "But she is no longer a harmless child anymore. She is a demon from another place. She killed my blood and she will die for it."  
  
"Ororo, please, listen. You can't just decide to kill her. We don't know what happened here. She is lost out there probably fearing people will want to do what you just said."  
  
"As well she should be," she said standing to her full 6 feet, eyes blazing. "I will find her. I will hunt her down. And I will take her head. You will either help me bring her down before she harms others or I will go it alone. If I do then I am never coming back. You will have betrayed me."  
  
"Storm," Xavier pleaded. "You can not take the law into your own hands. That is against everything that we teach here. You cant just decide to break the law because your feeling pain. Please don't do this, I need you here."  
  
"And I was here when you needed me, Charles," Ororo said, turning her back and heading out the door. "But obviously you wont be there in my time of need. Good bye, Charles."  
  
Ororo Munroe left the Xavier Institute, never to return.  
  
**************************************  
  
As the storm raged, great guilt took Rogue. She needed to find this girl, Merci but where? The club? Good a place as any.  
  
Rogue tilted over and simple fell off her perch, slowing her decent until she was floating. She almost landed but then rose higher into the air and simply flew through the tempest's might, feeling very free indeed. 


	12. Some Answers!

Outside a great tempest was raging all over Bayville and surrounding townships but in the actual room of the weather goddess all was quiet. In front of her single window she undressed, changing to leave this play she has called home for nearly ten years and set off on her own, never to return. First she had to find and kill Rogue. Ororo know longer saw the creature that is Rogue as a student she has spent many hours teaching and raising, even loving. The bonds of student to teacher didn't even touch the link between two people who shared blood. Her nephew was dead, killed by an evil and no one in this house would help her. That was fine. She would go it alone and stop this thing. It would not stand.  
  
Automatically she reached for her X-men uniform. She stopped dead as she thought of how her days of an X-men were over if she left this house and kill Rogue. She faltered for a moment, thinking of the family she was about to lose.  
  
She thought of the real family that had been slain only an hour ago and her resolve became steel.  
  
Her uniform in hand she walked naked over to her window and threw it open. A cold wind whipped into her attic, bringing rain and the sound of thunder. She bundled her uniform between her to hands and tensed. Vast crackles of electricity flew over the ball of clothes, the heat building until it burst into flame. Storm through the ball of fire out her window and watched it fall to the wet lawn below, it not going out until it landed.  
  
She left her window open and dressed in another suit. Pants of spandex and top of leather, she packed her few belongings that she cared to bring. She was about to call a cab when a knock came to her door.  
  
Thinking it was Charles trying to reason with her again she swung it open about to shout her ire. Kurt stood there instead, a long bundle under one arm, looking her steadily in the eyes.  
  
"I vant to come with you," were his simple words.  
  
Storm regarded the boy in puzzlement for a few seconds before saying no and closing her door. She turned back into her room and heard the familiar bamf.  
  
Without turning she said, "Kurt, leave my room before I make you. I have no time for this."  
  
"I think you gave up this room when you walked away, my lehrer," was the reply. "And I am not leaving here until you agree to take me with you."  
  
Storm turned, the angry goddess she is showing plainly. "Why should I bring you with me, child." She asked gravely, the usual parental kindness in "child" replaced with slight mocking.  
  
Kurt showed not sign of hearing this when he stepped forward. "Because a demon out there killed my best friend and I don't want others to suffer for it. I want to kill it."  
  
"You would kill your teammate and friend to avenge another?" Storm said, coldly, testing.  
  
"That thing is not Rogue anymore. Rogue died weeks ago. Whenever is running around in her body is a Dämon von der Hölle!" he spat out, tears starting to fall. "It has to die." He shook the bundle on one hand at his last words.  
  
Storm, hands on hips, nodded slowly. She strided over to her student and laid a hand on his shoulder. The tears still fell but his face was hard, his eyes like steel.  
  
"Are you sure you can do what has to be done?" she asked softly.  
  
Kurt unwound the cloth that covered his bundle to show a scabbard. He drew the long sword from its sheath. Wolverine was the fighting and weapons expert but she knew enough from the way he held it that this was not the first time he had held it.  
  
"Yes, mein lehrer," he answered.  
  
"You know if we do this you can never come back."  
  
"I most certainly clear on that."  
  
"Then pack your things. We leave immediately to stay at a hotel until I get permanent residence."  
  
"Um," Kurt said, the first sign of uncertainly in his voice. "Not to be rude but how are you going to pay for that?"  
  
Storm gave a wry smile. "Kurt, you don't spend half your life as a goddess without acquiring a little money along the way."  
  
***********************************  
  
Rogue past the line up to enter the gothic club, people waiting to enter giving her evil looks that she knew was steeped in jealousy and the hope she was denied entry ahead of them. Flashes of maroon around some told her this. The violet one around the bouncer showed boredom however. She knew she had to find a way to get by him but wasn't sure how. Making things up as you go along was another thing you learned in the X-men.  
  
She approached the man who was easily 4 times her size and smiled.  
  
"Whadda ya want, gial?" he asked, that violet going brighter still. She knew no answer was going to get her in by that point. She wished he would just let her by! So fast she almost thought it was a trick of her eyes, the violet turned green and back. The bouncer blinked a little but still stood in her away.  
  
No fucking way I can. she thought before giving it a go.  
  
Concentrating hard she saw deep into the aura and tried to change it. The green began flickering in his aura again. A kaleidoscope of colors started running around the man at random. Chaos almost broke out, the bouncer looking like he may pass out before Rogue finally got it right and the green held steady with her concentration. She asked to be let in through her focus and he stopped aside to let her in. she could literally feel the wave anger at her back, pushing her into the dark interior.  
  
She slumped against a wall, letting the blood drain from her legs. She had just changed that mans mind, or maybe even his very soul, making him feel what she wanted him to.  
  
"Beats knocking people out to get my way," Rogue muttered before heading further into the crowded club.  
  
Forgetting to put her guard up all the auras of the people inside nearly blew her mind apart. She felt the pressure build behind her eyes until she could suppress it and just see what she normally would. When her head stopped spinning she looked around, wondering how she was going to find this girl. If she was here. Which there was no guarantee she was.  
  
Well, she thought. In books and stuff they can sometimes detect each other. I can fly, run a mile under a minute, see auras, why not detect other vamps.  
  
In the confusion of loud Goth music and moving bodies, she closed her eyes and shut everything out. She kept thinking of what a vampire would feel like or anything that might help her. Very slowly it came to her. The soft but consistent tug that lead her though the crowd. She pushed people aside, slowly making her way to the girl's washroom.  
  
She was inside. This.whatever.was practically dragging her through the door. At the sink was a girl in a blood red top and black pants. Her long, straight red hair fell over her shoulders as she looked into the mirror, putting on lipstick it seemed. Rogue saw Merci's reflection in the mirror and suddenly felt great anger.  
  
This thing had killed her. Caused her to change and kill one of her friends. All this made her angry but somehow the fact that she could see herself while Rogue couldn't, for all eternity it seemed, that really pissed her off. She silently moved behind the girl, no reflection to show she was there.  
  
Merci smiled at her reflection, kissed the glass and turned around. She barely had time to register that anyone was there before a fist caught her in the jaw, lifting her off her feet and back into the glass, breaking it to shards that fell in the sink and on the counter.  
  
Merci landed on the glass covered counter and saw the next punch coming. She blocked it and the next, kicking Rogue in the stomach back against a stall.  
  
Merci, finally seeing her attacker, laughed gleefully. "Oh my god! Your alive!"  
  
"Alive? ALIVE?" Rogue screamed. "You fucking killed me!" Rogue rushed towards Merci, who managed to get her feet under her and flipped right over the charge. Rogue, did a quick jump and planted a foot on the counter. Another quick jump and spin swung her body and leg around to plant a foot right in the side of Merci's head.  
  
The red haired vamp stumbled against a wall, beside the tampon machine. She ripped the dispenser off the wall and blocked a punch to her head.  
  
"Will you fucking calm down." Merci said between blocks.  
  
Rogue didn't answer. She managed to kick the semi-shield out of her killer's hands and grab her by her hair. Usually she hated this kind of "girly" fighting. But this time she allowed, swinging Merci by her hair through the air and through the side of the side of the first stall. The steel barrier broke off its hinges, Merci falling on the floor, one hand landing in the less then clean toilet, the water a faint yellowish tint.  
  
"Oh that's just fucking nasty!" the girl screeched, standing and shaking her hand off. Rogue charged again. Merci, why couldn't understand how a non- vamp learned to fight like this so fast, did a quick jab with her fouled hand right at Rogue face, slapping her hard.  
  
No amount of Wolverine training can keep a 16 year old from just slapped with a urine-hand from jumping back and wiping her face franticly with a sleeve.  
  
"Now that was just gross!" Rogue gagged, picking up the discarded and leaking Tampax dispenser to throw.  
  
"Will you just hold on for one fucking second?" Merci yelled, holding the stall barrier between them.  
  
"Name one good reason," Rogue said before running and planting her foot in the barrier. Merci managed to jump out of the way and sat on the top of the next barrier.  
  
"Because your hysterical and ripping up a perfectly good bathroom," was the answer from above Rogue.  
  
She was debating attacking Merci again when a girl came through the swing door, letting the deafening music and gawked at the carnage and the two girls, one improbably sitting on the wall of a toilet stall.  
  
"What the fuck you do?" she asked them.  
  
"Sorry," Merci said with a wide, innocent grin. "We got a little carried away. You know how it is when you really get going." She added with a wink.  
  
The girl just looked at them, mouth open a little before walking back out.  
  
The little interruption had helped Rogue to calm down a little and she looked back up at Merci.  
  
"Did you do something to her?" Rogue asked.  
  
"What do you mean," Merci said, getting down and heading to a sink to wash her hand.  
  
"Change her aura or something," Rogue said, acutely aware that she really had no idea what she was talking about.  
  
"You mean mess with her lights? Naw, most mortals just take things at face value and let it go. Don't even realize what in their faces." Merci wrung her hands and went to the dryer. "You've been back about a week, right"  
  
Rogue tensed, remembering waking up in the dark and smell of dirt. "Yeah, how did you know?"  
  
"All true vampires raise on the full moon," Merci said simply walking back to Rogue. Looking her over. "I've been coming here every night for a couple of weeks, waiting for you to show up."  
  
This really stunned Rogue, thinking of how she had thought she would never find this girl again. "Why's that?"  
  
"Newbies always try and find the ones that bit them. Feeling them out until they find them, all confused and needing guidance. Although they normally don't get sucker punched," Merci added, looking in the mirror at a bruise on her cheek.  
  
Rogue almost felt sorry. "But what if it had been another vampire? Which you are right." Rogue really needed to hear that she wasn't just crazy this whole time.  
  
Merci, seeming to read her thoughts, "yes you're a vampire and so am I. You can't feel other vamps except the one who made you and faintly the one who made that one. Most vamps you never feel."  
  
"Okay," Rogue said slowly, letting her mind absorb all this carefully. "So why wait around for me?"  
  
"Its considered bad taste to not help your kiddie along. Kinda like child abandonment." Merci turned from the mirror and looked into the one in the front of Rogue's where only clear space was. "Bummer you lost your reflection."  
  
Rogue glanced in the glass that she was not in. "how come you have one and I don't?" she asked.  
  
"About 1 in 5 aren't born with one. Nobody knows why, just one of those random things," Merci said, about to add more when the huge bouncer from the front came through the door with two others.  
  
"Wassa fuck happa in heah?" he roared angrily in his weird accent.  
  
Both girls looked at each other and said, "umm."  
  
The three bouncers came in further, breaking glass under their boots. A tall blond one said, "You're fucked now. Don't know what you did in here but we're calling the cop for you two bitches. Come quietly or get your ass nailed" The three advanced on them.  
  
Neither girl seemed too fond of the word bitch. The looked at each other and waited for them to come.  
  
***********************************  
  
A couple of minutes later three huge bouncers were being thrown one by one out of the girl's washroom and onto the packed dance floor. Dancers back off when Merci and Rogue came out, looking very satisfied. That won't last however.  
  
Rogue looked up to see a familiar head of white hair makes its way above the other heads, the slender body breaking through, a boy holding a sword by her side.  
  
"Oh fuck," Rogue whispered, seeing the murder in the once friendly eyes.  
  
Merci looked up then and saw the two. "No rest for the wicked!" 


	13. GoodBye

Back at the Institute, Logan had just entered the garage in full uniform. He headed for his bike and saddled on. He didn't even turn his head when he said, "don't even think about trying to stop me, chuck."  
  
The Professor was sitting in the doorway, the strain of the last couple of weeks showing in his face, dark bruises under each eye showing that sleep evaded him. In his arrogance he had thought he would be ready for anything when he had started the X-Men. Life always showed you who won in the end though.  
  
"What do you mean to do?" was his simple question. His voice was very tired and he let it show.  
  
Logan huffed through his nose and said he didn't know.  
  
"All I know is that Spyke is dead, Rogue is on the run, Storm is after her and Nightcrawler is with him. I just cant stand here and do fuck all!" he snarled jamming his helmet on his head.  
  
Xavier understood fully what the man was feeling. All these children and friends were his responsibility; he should be doing something but was this the right course of action?  
  
The question became even more complicated when a voice trying to sound tough said, "I'm going with you."  
  
Xavier turned in surprise. He must be tired. He didn't even feel Kitty come up behind him. She was in full uniform.  
  
"Half-pint," Wolverine growled. "This is not even being discussed. Go back into the house and wait for me to come back.  
  
"No." Kitty said with a little tremble in her voice.  
  
"Kitty, please." the Professor began.  
  
"NO!" she screamed. It echoed of the walls of the garage in the surprised silence of the two men. Tears were streaming down Kitty face, her voice was choked with sobs but her body remained rigid and her eyes steady.  
  
"You don't understand," she began. "Rogue is out there alone and I have to help her. She came to me first and all I did was scream my stupid head off. I need to try and, like, help her somehow. I know Ororo went out to kill her and I know Kurt is with her. I can reason with Kurt, make him see this is wrong." Kitty was running out of steam. "Please."  
  
The two men looked at each other, a wordless conversation not of telepathy but just eyes. Both new that this had been hardest on Kitty, being the closest to Rogue both before and after she died.  
  
Xavier silently wheeled his chair back from the garage entrance. Logan sighed and said, "alright half-pint. Come on."  
  
Kitty smiled gratefully at the Professor before getting on the back of the bike. When Logan passed her the helmet she gave him a weird look.  
  
"You know I can, like, phase if we crash," she pointed out.  
  
"Look," he said giving her a dangerous look. "I have metal in my head, you don't. Either you put this helmet on or your not coming."  
  
Kitty put it on.  
  
Logan and Xavier exchanged nods before they took off into the night hunting. Xavier thought about how often he had preached tolerance and how Ororo had always been beside him on these things. But now something she didn't understand had killed her flesh and blood and she wants it dead no matter if the killer is a friend lost in some new world of night.  
  
Xavier's heart broke a little when he thought of just how more simple hate was.  
  
**************************************************  
  
Back at the clubs things weren't going so well. Storm was slowing parting the crowd in front of her as she advanced as if leading a whole army. In reality it was only Kurt behind her in black sweats and holding a sword. He had always jokingly said he was a deadly swashbuckler but never believed him.  
  
Rogue had slowly back up against the wall furthest from the two, knowing the meant to kill her. She didn't need to read their auras to know that. Merci, on the other hand, was just watching them advance with one hand on her hip. "Who are they?" she asked.  
  
Choking on the words a bit she replied, "they used to be my friends."  
  
Merci looked genuinely sad when she said, "friends never last into the second life, kid."  
  
No, that couldn't be true. Rogue screwed up all her courage and came off the comforting wall and slowly walked towards her teammates.  
  
"Ororo, Kurt, listen to me," she began. "You don't want to do this. I'm sorry about Evan, I couldn't stop it."  
  
"SILENCE!" Storm yelled. Outside great thunder claps boomed, shaking the whole building, all the people who had stayed to gawk started clearing out of the exits. Soon the two vampires and two mutants were alone.  
  
Tears started to stand out in Rogue's eyes. "Ororo.please." at that a lightening bolt shot right through the ceiling of the club above Rogue, bringing pieces of steel and plaster down on her. The bolt scoured her back in an agonizing jagged line of fire before she was buried.  
  
Rain came down through the great hole the bolt had opened up, falling on the pile of debris that covered Rogue. Merci turned furious blue eyes on Storm, who looked back at her calmly.  
  
"You bitch!" Merci screamed. Storm didn't have the time to raise her hands before a red streak came at her, punching her in the face, sending her off her feet and to the floor. Merci was about to move in again when an arc of steel came at her head that she barely ducked. Kurt swung at her again and again screaming at her to go back to the hell that spawned her. When Merci would use to her speed to get in close, Nightcrawler would simply port behind her and swing again. He was as good with a sword as he bragged and Merci was on the run.  
  
Storm had recovered from the punch and was about to join the fray when the wreckage from the ceiling began to shift and Rogue emerged, clothes tattered and back bloody. Storm sent a lightening bolt from her hand this time, which Rogue managed to dodge when Storm felt a stabbing pain in her shoulder. She looked down and saw a bone spike stabbed into her shoulder. Evan's bone spike.  
  
The fury exploded in Storm filling the room with her power. Tornado winds filled the tiny space with lightening bolts flying all over the place. Deadly white eyes picked out Rogue in the chaos and channeled it all at her sending wind and electricity at her in full force. It was like getting hit by five trucks, Rogue's body slammed against the far wall, denting it. Her broken body fell to the ground, ruined and half conscious. She looked up at Storm with sad eyes. Finding no remorse she knew she was about to die.  
  
A cold smile crossed Storm's face, one hand a blue ball of power raised high ready to strike.  
  
SNIKT!  
  
Two adamantium blades bracketed Storm's slender neck. The third still in its housing, the threat clear.  
  
"Hello, Logan," Storm said as if it were a normal everyday meeting in the halls. She didn't drop the charged hand though. "To what do I owe your presence?"  
  
"You need to power down, 'Ro," he said quietly. Kitty had sneaked around the side and was kneeled over Rogue, checking her injuries, a lot were already healing.  
  
"You know I can't do that," Storm said reasonably. "This thing has to die."  
  
"That 'thing' is Rogue. Your student!" Kitty shouted at her. Ororo just looked back with dead eyes.  
  
"You don't understand, child," sadness in her voice as if explaining the concept of 'life isn't fair'. "Rogue died two weeks ago. All this is a monster. It killed my nephew, your friend. It has to die." With that the charged had raised higher. Kurt was about jump in and port Logan away when Merci caught him in the back of the head because he wasn't paying attention.  
  
"Ororo," Logan's voice very dangerous. "Please don't make me do this!"  
  
Storm carefully turned her head and looked at him and realized he would really do it and let the power go.  
  
The claws were retracted and Storm calmly walked away from them, waking Kurt with a little bolt.  
  
"It doesn't have to be this way," Logan said.  
  
Storm turned once and said, "Yes it does. This is now a war and you have chosen your side and I have chosen mine." She looked at Rogue on the ground and added "I will see you dead."  
  
Both her and Kurt walked away from them and X-Men for good.  
  
Rogue slowly got to her feet. When Kitty tried to hug her she pushed her away and walked over to Merci. She was defeated. Storm might as well have killed her. She couldn't go back to the school and risk killing again.  
  
Her head was down as she said to Mercy, "please take me away from here."  
  
Merci nodded and took her arm. Kitty was about to scream for them not to go when they vanished in twin streaks of black and red right through the hole in the roof.  
  
"NO!" Kitty screamed sobbing. Logan held her as she cried. "It can't end like this! It cant!" she wept.  
  
Logan, looking out the roof thought that it was far from an ending. 


	14. Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras.  
  
Was there ever a better time or place for a vampire? Hot humid night air of New Orleans. One of those blessed places that don't have winter. One of the major banes of being a vampire, the longest nights are invariably the coldest ones.  
  
Rogue leaned against the wall of an alley, looking out at the parade passing by. Hundreds of people screamed and danced with the deep drumbeats that echoed off the floats. The hot air vibrated with the rhythm. Shadows embraced Rogue as she watched the barely restrained chaos.  
  
Merci was in the thick of it, jumping and dancing, her red hair flying all about her, with the rest of the humans. Like she was one of them. Which she was Rogue supposed. One time Merci had said something about vampires being just as human as mutants. Rogue had thought on this for a long time. Was she just another type of human? Another link in evolution? She could never buy that. What kind of species fed on its own kind? She could probably think of several but didn't want to.  
  
Merci was now in the center of a group of men jumping up and down as one of the bead floats passed by. She lifted up her black top and flashed pale breasts capped with the lightest of pink nipples. The men around her roared and cheered both at her and the rain of beads that fell on them. Rogue's sharp eyes watched as a red one flew through the air towards Merci who jumped for it but a much taller man caught it and held it over her head. Merci pouted at him. He leaned over and spoke in her ear over the noise and Merci smiled.  
  
Rogue sighed and went back to watching the crowd. All these people, just having fun in one of the only parades of its kind. Energy and emotion was high and Rogue got curious. She had never tried this with such a hyped up crowd. Only once on a crowded New York street and Merci had had to drag her away when she had started screaming. But she was stronger now. Who knows, maybe she could actually control all these people.  
  
Changing her focus, Rogue let the lights in. they blasted her mind like an optical H-bomb making her gasp as an instant lethal migraine took her. Her eyes felt like they would explode before she stopped it. She had lasted about half a second. In that second, the entire sky was a blaze of colour, all the colours in the world penetrating everything. Every person as bright as a sun giving off brilliance.  
  
Rogue slumped against the wall retreating further into the dark alley, letting the dark heal her eyes. The time she had tried that in New York had been 6 months earlier, just after leaving Bayville forever. She had still had no control and they had slipped in, nearly breaking her still fledgling mind. Merci had been afraid if she had kept doing it she would end up catatonic.  
  
Merci.  
  
She had kept her alive those first couple of months, force-feeding her victims when needed. Rogue had needed blood at least twice a week just to keep from passing out by that point. The funny thing about the blood is that the more you drank, the more you needed. It was the worst thing imaginable. Imagine being not addicted to heroin, but needing it to actually live. Merci thought it was probably possible to phase the blood down to something like once a month but that would take years and more strength she thought anyone had. For they really did need the blood to live. All its power did keep them just at the very end of deaths leash.  
  
They had hidden out in many downtown back rooms and hidden places, Merci bringing people down to her, cutting their throats and pulling Rogue struggling head to the wound. Once the liquor touched her lips she fed on her own. It was like the blood drew her in as she drew it out, sucking down to the last drops. It was so.wonderful. And rogue hated that it could be so good. This lover who demanded too much of her but she went back and back.  
  
Eventually she started feeding on her own. Going with Merci and sharing the kill together. It was supposed to be that she would start doing it on her but they had never quite gotten to that point. Not that Rogue couldn't. She could be the two had become very good friends in all this. Merci was her only anchor in the sea of red and she was one to be trusted not to sink her. Besides she was fun to have around, making everything almost like a game that Rogue hated until she saw how necessary it was. If Rogue had thought about what she did in those early days she would be dead, not being able to do it. She was strong enough now. And it was good thing she was because she had something Merci or no vampire that Merci had heard of had.  
  
Andrew Davis. Marcy Kitchener. David Marshal. Kent Luci.  
  
All these people we in Rogue head because she had killed them. She wasn't sure if it was because she was a mutant turned vampire or just one of those weird new powers that Merci says pops up every now and again, but when Rogue fed and killed she got the persons.well, soul is the only way to put it. It wasn't just their memories. She got their essence, everything about them. It was worse then her poison touch before this was tinged in blood.  
  
So far Rogue had killed 114 people. 77 males, 37 females. 42 of them had had children. 53 children had been orphaned because of her, some being, Alyssa, age 7, Peter, age 10, Mary, 4, Chandler, 13, Timmy, 2, Tar-Bear, 3 months and other cute names given by parents who weren't coming back home. Wanna know the parents who had to give funerals for children who should have outlived them?  
  
Rogue knew all this cause each of the 114 people were stuck in a box in her head, imprisoned for life in very dark rooms with no doors. It was the only way. If she let them run around they would destroy her like Evan had tried to do.  
  
Oh Evan. Sometimes she almost didn't think about him until she felt her new bones shifting in her body. They were heavier new but flexible. She supposed she could get used to them but she didn't want to, lest she forget. His box was still there with all the others. It seemed she would never run out of space. Rogue guessed she had to thank the Professor. He taught her how to wall up the voices.  
  
Merci was heading her way with the guy she had been smiling with, the red beads hanging around her neck, a triumphant smile on her smooth face. The guy was following her, his hand in hers into the dark alley where Rogue was.  
  
He didn't see her; he caught up with Merci and turned her back to the wall, showing her how strong he was in an attempt to turn her on. Merci could have put her fist through his chest.  
  
"So, what's my surprise?" he said, sounding only a little drunk as his head bent forward to kiss and nibble her neck. Rogue cold already smell, the chemicals flowing in the blood, giving it flavour to make the saliva flood her mouth. Merci turned her head to give him access, looking at Rogue deep in the shadows and replying, "she is."  
  
The guy raised his head just as Rogue walked out of the deeper shadows, making her just barely visible, only a dark outline of female figure. Rogue focused on his aura and walked the rest of the way to the guy. It was the deep red of lust, wafting around him, poring out of him. Rogue stepped up to him with a slight smile and grabbed the back of his head, kissing him. The guy immediately responded. After all, why not, didn't all those Mardi Gras videos on the net prepare you for this sort of thing? His tongue parted her lips nicely and slid into her mouth. Despite everything, despite what she knew they were going to do, she responded back, her hands slipping around his waist and pulling him close, nestling his hard cock into her crotch.  
  
Being denied any kind of contact for 3 years now had made her a nympho, as Merci liked to say anyway. The two fell back onto Merci who easily took there weight and wrapped her own hands around the guy, going between their bodies, stroking his stomach and chest. This of course had the back of her hand stroking Rogue's breasts as well. Rogue wondered why she didn't mind. Its not like Merci had ever come onto her, maybe it was just something in the moment. They were about to share death. What's a touch on the boob?  
  
Merci was kissing the back of the guy's neck, now reaching down and undoing the zipper of his pants. Rogue was still kissing him, her tongue following his into his mouth, leading it back and sucking on it. One of his hands slid under the green mesh shirt she wore and under the black bra that showed through. His hand was very hot on her cool skin, making the nipple rise up in the way that cold would for anybody else. The nub was rubbed and circled. The boy had some skill, Rouge had to admit. His other hand found its way under her leather skirt, no stalkings in the way, only a black thong (just so no panty lines would show, she swore). His fingers worked well together as the crotch was pulled aside and his index found her clit quickly, rubbing it. Rogue's hips bucked towards him and his pants fell open. Merci's hand could be felt between them sliding into the boxers and grabbing him firmly. Her cool hand slid up and down the hot flesh quickly and easily, making the guys hips sway with the motion. Now Rogue and the man were moaning into each other's mouth, working against each other. Rogue slid her mouth to the guy's neck, Merci still kissing the other side.  
  
His orgasm came quickly then, flooding the blood with new life, energy and flavour. Both girls sank their teeth into his throat as he came. For the guy, whose name was Mitchell as Rogue knew now, it was the greatest orgasm of his life, with a down to equal as he slipped into unconsciousness. The two drank deeply of all his blood until there was none left and fell back away from him, letting the now dead body drop.  
  
"Oh, god," Merci moaned in ecstasy, licking her lips. "That guy must have worked out. His blood was so pure and clean, only a smidge of alcohol for flavour."  
  
Rogue swayed for a moment before shaking her head awake. She had been stuffing soul number 115 into his box. "He was an all star track runner at his school." Rogue said, looking at the body. "He always wanted to go to Mardi Gras. His sister Katie wanted to come but she's only six and couldn't."  
  
"Rogue," Merci said quietly. She was right. Rogue still got a little trippy right afterwards. What Merci didn't know was Rogue hoped she always kept that "trippyness" as Merci called it.  
  
Merci stretched down, got the guys wallet and took all the money and credit cards, and headed for the alley mouth, Rogue following. They left the body, it no doubt would be picked up in the morning. The family would be told that he fell victim to violence or something. Merci didn't really understand why it went like that but she had a "don't rock the boat your in attitude."  
  
"I definitely need a little boning satisfaction," Merci said. She had a habit of screwing right after a feed. "Would you like to join me?" she added already knowing the answer.  
  
"No, that's alright," she replied a tired look on her face. "I'll see you back at the hotel." She veered off and walked into the noisy crowd, still able to hear what Merci yelled at her.  
  
"You can't stay a virgin forever!"  
  
"ah can try," she said to herself. 


	15. Interlude: New Recruit

(Authors Note: I am in no way an autopsy expert. All facts pertaining to when the time of death occurs were pulled directly from my ass.)  
  
It was a wonderful night for Rahne St. Clair.  
  
A full moon filled the sky and forest in silver light, making bright pools of light and deep shadows. The air was clean and pure with only a smidge of that pollution that she had come accustomed to smelling since she had left her little town in Scotland.  
  
It would have been a perfect night except for the vampire she was currently chasing through these woods.  
  
She could smell it. Hell, she could almost taste him on the breeze pushing through her nose and into her panting lungs. She was a big hulking wolf, crashing through low hanging branches and snapping twigs under powerful paws. She didn't always look like this. Just on the full moon when her transformation was at its strongest did she grow to be this size. At the other end of the spectrum she looked like just any other normal female wolf, maybe a little small for her size.  
  
She was starting to close in. she could hear the vampire ahead of her, running faster then any man but not faster then her. She was lucky, she had been told that vampires could have a lot of different powers when they were turned but speed was not in this one arsenal.  
  
It was a good thing she had speed in such good doses. It had kept her alive back when her powers had first manifested at 14 on a full moon. Back in Scotland they had been sitting around a roaring fire while their da told ghost stories of banshee's and the wee people. Lately strange things had been happening around town. People swearing they saw ghosts walking up walls and the like. Her da had thought it a grand idea to tell some stories. Maybe if he hadn't been it would have gone differently. It wasn't like in the movies, the full moon didn't break out from behind a cloud to shine on her. It was very cloudy outside, the night dark, perfect for ghost telling. Her father was just getting to a gruesome part when Rahne had felt the pain in her head. It started there and spread slowly through her body, lighting it on fire. She probably screamed because suddenly her family was on her, holding her down as she thrashed. Her body began to stretch in agonizing inches, ripping her clothes to shreds. All her muscles felt as if they might burst through her skin! The on time she heard herself scream was when a clawed hand, covered in red fur rose in front of her face.  
  
It took her a second to realize it was her own hand.  
  
Her family backed away from her in terror as she became the werewolf for the first time. Her father stepped forward and bellowed for her to get out of his house. He reached for the rifle that had been kept over the mantle, that he sworn to them as green children he had shot a leprechaun right in the bottom for cheating him, and turned it on her.  
  
That's when he shot her.  
  
His hand was shaky and the bullet caught her where the neck meets the shoulder and she screamed again, only this time it came out as a full on roar that shook the house. She couldn't even remember turning and jumping through the window, shattering glass that didn't cut her thanks to the tough pelt of fur. She instinctively raced to the forest and hid in its comforting trees and shadows while an armed mob started in the streets. Lighted torches lit the crowd as they headed into the forest on the hunt.  
  
She still doesn't know how she survived that night. Her new senses kept her aware of where they were and if there was a chance of being caught. But still.it was a lot of luck.  
  
She woke up naked and cold by a tree, shivering and crying even before she awoke.  
  
For the next 3 weeks she was a run away on the streets of Glasgow. She made it there on foot, stowaway and trade.  
  
And she had no possessions to trade with. Only her body and what it could do.  
  
But she made it there and disappeared in the crowds, able to hide what she was most of the time. There would be times when she would be forced to change by fear, anger, or some other strong emotion. At these times it was like there was an animal inside of her trying to get out. Once a young fellow had tried to rape her in an old factory too close to the full moon. The change came too fast her to control and when she had regained control. She found pieces of him everywhere but not enough to make up a whole body.  
  
That's when she had tasted the blood in her mouth and down her throat. When she threw up whole pieces of him came out where she hadn't bothered to chew. By this time she knew she was a mutant and hated everything about it.  
  
At the end of her three week on the streets of Glasgow she had been out of money and needed new clothes after her last set were shredded again and she was forced to wear a dirty and shit stained blanket she found in a dumpster. She was desperate and hungry. A bad combination.  
  
It was night and she had been waiting for a while with a knife in her hand in the entrance of an alley with no lights. Waiting for the right person to pass by. Maybe if she had not been half insane with hunger and filth she would not have chosen the black woman with the braided white hair and dark haired boy that was with her.  
  
But she did.  
  
She grabbed the boy who was closer to her as they passed and pulled him in, quickly putting the blade of the knife to his throat before he could struggle too much. In her haze she didn't notice the feeling of fur under her fingers. She just needed the money.  
  
The tall woman turned slowly as Kurt was pulled into the alley to look straight into Rahne's eyes in the shadows. The woman's eyes were blue and fading to white as she watched!  
  
The tall woman slowly approached Rahne and her hostage. She was dressed all in black with a long leather coat that went to her knees. Rahne started to think she had made a mistake.  
  
In a cold voice that froze her middle, the white eyed woman softly said, "let him go now."  
  
The boy she was holding spoke in a German accent. "I would listen to her if I were you."  
  
Neither of them were scared in the slightest, even the boy with a knife to his throat! Rahne tried to keep her voice steady and failed when she said, "nae! Give me your wallets both of you!"  
  
The woman simply said, "Kurt." The boy she was holding suddenly disappeared in a cloud of foul smoke leaving a very surprised Rahne clutching air. She heard something like a muffled pop behind her and turned to see the boy there behind her.  
  
She was trapped now between them? What were they going to do? She started to panic, which of course made her start to change. Her body started to change, growing reddish fur, her teeth becoming sharper in a mouth that lengthened becoming more of a muzzle. The transformation over-extended her already over worked and under-fed metabolism. The world first started to spin then went dark.  
  
When she woke up she was very disoriented. Not so much because she had no idea where she was but by what she was lying in. a bed. With an actual mattress! And it didn't stink of piss or shit. She was surrounded in a cocoon of warmth that reminded he of her old comforter at home. When she opened her eyes she found herself lying on her side, curled up under a soft blanket and looking at a luxurious hotel room. Or so she thought anyway. Rahne slowly started to sit up and immediately became dizzy again. She breathed for a few minutes till it passed and looked around her. It was definitely a hotel room and a rich on at that! Elegant furniture was everywhere and it had a balcony over on one wall. It was all so nice!  
  
What made it not so nice anymore was when she saw just how many weapons were in the room. On a huge, square glass table she saw assorted knives, guns, long silver spikes and other things that she couldn't even recognize. She got out of the bed and new wave of nausea took her. When it passed she noticed she was naked and very clean. She managed to blush when she pieced together that someone had bathed her. She grabbed a big white robe that hung on a chair beside the bed as her mind took off. Was it those two she was met the other night? Why would they bring her here? And what was with all the weapons? Were thy going to kill her? Her mind teemed with questions as she walked over to the table and picked up one of the knives. It had a curved handle and a serrated edge on one side. Her eyes went wide looking it all over.  
  
Behind her a door opened. She spun around and saw the boy she had grabbed the night before enter holding a tray of food on one hand and kicking the door closed.  
  
"Hey!" he said cheerfully walking into the room and speaking in the same German accent. "Glad to see you're awake! Ororo said you would be hungry when you woke up so I got you some breakfast." He placed the tray on a smaller table a little away from Rahne who still stood frozen where she was.  
  
The boy's smile faltered a little and asked," um, are you planning on using that?" pointing to the knife she still clutched.  
  
Rahne stared dumbly at it for a moment be didn't put it down. She forced herself to talk and what came out was, "which one of you bathed me?"  
  
The boy blushed a deep red and seemed to find the curtains shading the window door to the terrace interesting. "It was Ororo. I wasn't in the room." He added quickly and took the lid of the tray of food. When the scent of eggs, bacon, toast and sausage hit her sensitive nose her stomach cramped so hard she actually moaned. She didn't move though.  
  
Rahne watched as the boy got it and backed away from the tray a good distance. Rahne slowly, even though her stomach wanted her to run, walked over to the try and looked down at it, still holding the dagger. She sat down and looked at the boy, making sure where he was and put the weapon down. For the next two minutes all her attention was on devouring the meal on the tray, leaving nary a trace.  
  
When she was done she looked at her company who was sitting in a chair watching her.  
  
"Why did you bring me here?" she asked.  
  
"You fainted in the alley," the dark haired boy said, blue eyes holding her brown. "We couldn't leave you. When was the last time you had eaten?"  
  
Rahne found herself answering, "five days." She refused to eat from the garbage as some of the street kids did. There was just something in her that wouldn't let her do that. Maybe it was her da's influence, the one who had shot her clean through. He had left a scar on her but she still couldn't get the pride he put in her out of her mind.  
  
"Whoa!" came the wondrous reply. "Five days? That is a long time! I no wonder you fainted. I would  
  
be almost dead! Oh! And how rude of me. My name is Kurt Wagner" he got up to shake her hand but when he saw her hand close over the handle of the blade he sat down again. "Um, what's your name?"  
  
She hesitated but answered, "Rahne St.Clair." after a brief, uncomfortable pause she asked, "how long do I have to stay here?" she was secretly hoping until at least lunch.  
  
Kurt's eyes widened in surprise. "We're not forcing you to stay. Ororo just went out to buy you some clothes. If you want to leave you can. I just hope you'll wait for some clothing first." A steady blush lighted his cheeks up as he spoke and examined the tops of his shoes.  
  
"Okay," she answered a little more at ease. She guessed that people who plan to kill you don't blush when they mention you're naked. She looked over at the weapon-laden table and asked the burning question.  
  
"Who are you people?"  
  
Kurt looked over at the table too and sighed. After a second he said, "its best if we wait for Ororo to come back to explain, if she want to even explain at all."  
  
The next twenty minutes was spent in growing ease and conversation. Rahne told him about how she ended up on the streets and her mutation. Kurt totally floored her when he revealed that he and the woman were both mutants as well. He fiddled with the fancy watch he had and abruptly became a blue furred demon with yellow eyes that made Rahne gasp. He reactivated the holo and just became a boy again. She was going to ask about the watch when the suit doors opened and the white haired woman strode in carrying two shopping bags. When she saw that Rahne was awake she didn't smile but set down the bags and sat at the table right across from the girl, locking ice blue eyes on the girl.  
  
Rahne thought those eyes looked so dead.  
  
She reached for the dagger again only to have it snatched from under her hand by the woman. When the woman named Ororo finally spoke her voice was calm and appraising.  
  
"What has Kurt told you about us?"  
  
Admittedly she didn't know much. Kurt had just said they were from America on some business. The woman gave a satisfied nod and went on.  
  
"What do you know about vampires?"  
  
For the next couple of hours the woman, also known as Storm, told her everything about them and the demons of the night that the hunted, how her nephew was killed by one, how they had come here cause they had heard some were hunting in Scotland.  
  
Eventually everyone got hungry again and they ordered lunch, asking the food be left in the hall, Rahne thought for obvious reasons. She dug into the food when it arrived having a lot more to chew on then just food.  
  
"Okay," she said around a mouthful of food. "Lets say I believe all this about vampires being real. Why are you telling me? Its not like it makes a difference me knowing. When I go back on the streets, I'm more liking to get killed by another street kid then some blood sucker."  
  
"First, do not talk with food in your mouth," Ororo recited. Some habits die very hard. "Second, I am telling you because I would like for you to join us."  
  
The food the Rahne had been in the middle of swallowing immediately got stuck and she began to cough. Kurt was up like a shot, whapping her on the back while Storm held a slightly amused look in her eyes.  
  
When her face went from blue back to pink Rahne stammered, "wha-what? Why?"  
  
"Because I see great strength in you. Surviving on the streets, attacking us."  
  
"Don't confuse stupidity with strength," Rahne interrupted.  
  
"I'm not," Storm went on. " And your not. Besides with your keen senses and strength you would be invaluable in finding and killing them."  
  
Storm stopped talking and let Rahne think for a moment. If this was all true then she was being offered a once in a lifetime here. As well as never being hungry or cold.  
  
Rahne looked at the woman and asked, "Can you help to control my mutation more?"  
  
Storm almost smiled. "That, I can more certainly do."  
  
That very night Rahne went out with the two into the streets. She watched them load up on weapons and was given a few of the silver spikes as well. Kurt, also Nightcrawler, was without his disguise. When he was he was very hard to see in the dark and kept disappearing in puffs of smoke as her and Storm walked. Eventually he appeared in front of them with a solemn look.  
  
"Body," was all he said and pointed to an alley not to far up ahead. Storm told him to watch the entrance as his two companions walked into the dark.  
  
A bunch of trashcans were bunched in the and when the looked over them Rahne immediately turned away and threw up all the food she had eaten that day with such relish.  
  
Behind the trash bins in the cramped space lay the mutilated body of a toddler. Rahne could only tell that by the size of the tiny corpse that it was still a child. The naked body was horribly torn apart, muscles and organs showed in deep gashes along its length. The face was ravaged beyond recognition, as well as the genitals so the sex couldn't be told. There was no blood though. That seemed to make it all the worse.  
  
Rahne felt a strong hand catch the collar of her coat and pull her back over struggling. Storm forced the young girl to face over the garbage cans even though her eyes were squeezed shut.  
  
"Open your eyes and take a look at what it is we hunt," came the insanely calm voice. Rahne was shaken until she complied, opening her eyes as tears started to course down her cheeks.  
  
"The real measure of any creature is how they treat others," Storm spoke. "It has always been that way. We know from police reports that this child went missing two days ago on the other side of town. For two days this girl, Clara Gibbons, has been in the company of this monster and was killed just tonight. You can tell by the edges of the wounds that haven't hardened." Storm said if she was back in a classroom, teaching her students how to solve a science problem.  
  
"There is no blood on the wounds," she suddenly stated followed by the question. "Why?"  
  
At first Rahne didn't answer, could only sob quietly in the woman's grip until she was shaken again and asked why.  
  
"Be-because it took all the blood." Rahne hitched out the answer.  
  
"Correct. So what does that tell you about the wounds?"  
  
The answer immediately came to Rahne even though she tried to reject it with all her heart. But it was still there.  
  
The hitches quieted down to nothing and she whispered, "they happened after the babe was already dead."  
  
"Correct again." The hand loosened and lay on the girl's bare neck lightly. "That's the kind of thing we're dealing with. It's not just another type of human that needs blood to live and has no other choice. They can live off other kinds of blood but choose not to and do things like what you see here."  
  
Storm turned with Rahne and left the alley, an arm around the shell-shocked girl and rejoined Kurt who watched her with sad eyes.  
  
"Now the only question." Storm said turning to her. ".is what you want to do about it?"  
  
And that had brought her here, to these woods a ways from Glasgow where they had tracked the demon. Storm had called this a right of passage, that if she couldn't kill the thing on her own then she had no place with them cause you never know when one or all of the others might fall and have to go on alone. Kurt had been there with his sword, giving her a hopeful look of luck as she headed into the woods and forced the change she felt just under the skin this full moon.  
  
She had quickly picked up the scent and chased it, getting so close. She could see it now, a dark shape darting through the wood ahead of her. It was fast but she was faster. In a mighty pounce she tackled the thing. Her nose was filled with its nauseas sent of blood and gore. It struck out at her and tore 4 scores of blood along her side. She roared in pain before her powerful jaws dropped down and clamped onto its neck.  
  
The two tore at each other. The vampires red eyes blazing in fear, rage, and pain as it clawed at Rahne's flanks. The werewolf never let go of its hold though and worked on the neck, tearing it open bit by bit until the head fell away from the body. The huge wolf stood over the headless body, panting and with blood on its muzzle. It watched as the body and head aged rapidly before her, eventually turning to bones and then dust.  
  
The wolf Rahne let out a great howl of triumph and a dark figure dropped out of the sky and let down beside her. With a huge amount of effort Rahne changed back to her human form. Scratches covered her body and there was blood around her mouth. She wiped at it absently with the back of her hand, smearing it.  
  
Storm came forward and gave the naked girl her bundle of clothes and addressed her solemnly.  
  
"Welcome, hunter."  
  
Rahne took the clothes with a smile. 


	16. Thief in the Night

Rogue knew that something was off as soon as she entered the room. She didn't show it however as she closed and locked the door behind her of their hotel room. Yeah, someone was definitely here.  
  
Earlier in the evening the lock had been skillfully picked, leaving no scratch or sign to the eye that it had been tampered with. The door swung open and a figure walked into the room confidently, already knowing that no one was there. He had seen the two girls leave the room earlier that evening and knew from their routine that they wouldn't e back until about dawn. The staff wouldn't enter this late at night and he girls had already made it known that they didn't want any staff to enter the room while it was theirs. The thief had noticed all these things while watching the two girls for the past few days. This was actually the fifth room he had entered this night, leaving theirs for last because of their habits.  
  
He casually looked about the room, already being able to read so much about them just by being in the room. The two were close all right. Clothes were indiscriminately thrown everywhere, no sign of whose clothes belonged to whom. They seemed to share everything. Even underwear was mixed in with the mess. They didn't seem to be sisters, they were too close in age and if they were maybe even twin, they would have kept their stuff separate. When you're mistaken for someone else all your life you get a little greedy for what's yours.  
  
The bathroom was a likewise lived in mess of bottles and jars and make, all shared. Remy didn't think the two were lovers, on the occasions he had seen them they hadn't seemed THAT close.  
  
But a little more looking around would show him.  
  
He leisurely started looking through the room, quickly finding the hidden stash of money that all hotel stayers seemed to think the help would never find. Remy knew a few people on this hotels staff who could attest otherwise.  
  
Remy LeBeau was a cocky guy of 6 feet who thought that he was invincible, thought that he was the best he thieves guild had. He wore a brown trench coat over black clothing that brought out his eyes, a red on black that made his handsome face look dangerous in a very good way. He broke a cardinal rule among thieves that night when he took the time to count the money he had found lying around. Any real thief could tell you never stick around and count the money because you never knew when the people who owned the money might return.  
  
He learned that lesson quickly when he heard a key being inserted into the lock of the door behind him. In the two seconds he had he swore loudly in his head and dashed for the bed between him and the door, rolling under it and out of sight just as the door opened. He looked over and watched as a pair of boots walked in the room and paused. She knew something was wrong, but how? He had left no trace of himself.well, except for himself.  
  
The door closed slowly behind the boots and locked.  
  
Rogue shifted her sight into the colours and looked at the room. Definitely someone here. A dark blue after glow was in the room, showing the path of the person as it faded from the door, to the bathroom, the closest where their money was and around the bed.  
  
From under the bed came the outer edges of the aura, a blue of the deepest ocean tinged only the slightest of nervous yellow. Other then that, whoever it was as cool as a cucumber. Rogue gave a tired grin and walked over to the bed. She couldn't even smell any adrenaline or that faint thunder she can sometimes here when a heart nearby is really pumping.  
  
"Wow," she said faintly.  
  
Under the bed he heard the little word and wondered what she was talking about. But then all thought was rushed from his head as the girl hopped onto the top of the bed and laid down. To Remy's slight dismay she seemed to be making herself comfortable.  
  
For the next ten minutes all was quiet, the only sound was Remy's slow breathing which became very loud in his ears and Rogue was starting to be able to hear as she strained to catch any sound he made. He didn't make any beyond the breathing.  
  
Rogue was actually finding this a little fun, seeing which one of them would be the first to break cover, her letting whoever it is know she knew or whoever letting himself be known. It would end abruptly whenever Merci got back of course but for now it was a quiet game of chess.  
  
Ten minutes more Rogue got a little bored and decided to have some fun. She reached over to her bedside table and opened the drawer. It was their candy drawer and she picked out some peanut M&Ms. Sure, for a vampire hey had absolutely no nutritional value but candy was still good. She opened the bag and popped one in her mouth, crunching it loudly for Remy to hear under the bed.  
  
Then non-chalantly as could be she turned took another, turned on her side and chucked it under the bed.  
  
It hit Remy square in the nose.  
  
Deducing that the gig was probably up, smirked and took he candy and bit into it loudly, chomping and chewing away. If the girl had been going to call the cop, she would have done to already, might as well play along to get on her good side.  
  
Rogue heard the loud chewing and stifled a laugh, taking two for herself and chewing even louder, even keeping her mouth open a little. Remy gave a quiet laugh that she heard.  
  
When she heard a slight shuffle she looked over to see a slender black gloved hand reaching above the edge of her bed, palm up and doing a "come on" motion with the fingers for more candy. She finally burst out laughing and gave the palm a handful and it disappeared back down.  
  
"So," Rogue said, finally breaking the stalemate. "What's ya name?"  
  
"Je suis Remy," came the Cajun accent. "Et toi?"  
  
Grinning, she replied Rogue. "You do speak english don't ya?"  
  
"Mais, oui," was the simple response. Rogue had to admit, that accent was sexy. It was a shame that Merci was probably going to kill him when she got back.  
  
"So," rogue began again. "Are you a perv or a thief?"  
  
There was a small silence before he answered, "why do you say a perv?"  
  
"A guy who breaks into a girls room is either looking for her money or her underwear, which are you?" Rogue finished.  
  
"Ahh," came the understanding sound. "I am a thief. The best thief in my family and this city."  
  
"Right," Rogue drew out sarcastically. "And ending up trapped under the bed is just part of your style right?"  
  
"Mayhaps if I do then the beautiful girl above might dream of this poor boy for just one night," came the suave answer.  
  
'Damn, he's good!' Rogue thought.  
  
They ended up talking that way for the rest of the night, Rogue above and Remy below. They managed to do this without saying anything about themselves or where they were from. Another sort of game between them. Rogue knew that at the end of the night she was going to have to help Merci kill him and get rid of his body the next night and it made her sad. Why couldn't she just talk to him? Did she have to bring death to everyone she met? At one point during their conversation she silently began to cry.  
  
Too soon the two fell quiet when they heard a key jammed into the locked and twisted open. Merci  
  
literally floated in and slammed the door behind her, already talking.  
  
"Hey, I finally found out where the gatherings going to happen tomorrow night, ran into a guy on bourbon and he told me after these three hours of fucking that I have to tell you about in detail! He did this really cool thing with his fangs."  
  
Merci finally stopped her and looked at Rogue and asked, "what's wrong?"  
  
Rogue almost said nothing and but knew Merci would notice eventually.  
  
"Could ya come out now?" she asked. Merci gave her a strange look until a tall, dark and very sexy mad stood rolled out from the otherside of the bed and stood up, a little smile that turned Rogue's insides to mush when she finally saw him.  
  
Merci gaped at the guy. Then at Rogue and back. She did this a few more times before yelling and laughing, "I knew it! I knew you were holding out on me! I knew it!"  
  
Rogue grinned and rolled her eyes, still lying down. "It's not like that."  
  
"Bullshit," she teased. "What, you just came back here and found him under the bed?"  
  
Rogue again burst out laughing, this time so hard her stomach started to hurt. Remy, the mater of cool he is, also couldn't help laughing.  
  
"Okay," Merci drawled. "Ya'll are nuts! Who are you?" Merci could have just scanned him but asked anyway, finding this a little funny herself.  
  
The guy who looked about the age she had been when she turned told her his first name and didn't grace them with the second. That's when Merci got an idea.  
  
"Well, Remy, if that is your real name, what are you doing tomorrow night?" Merci asked.  
  
Rogue froze in horror, knowing instantly what Merci as doing.  
  
Remy shrugged and said, "depends. What do you have in mind?"  
  
"Just this rave that's happening tomorrow, you in?" Merci shrugged but grinning widely. This was fun. If he said yes, he walked, if not then he was dead. Either way.  
  
Remy thought for a moment. He hadn't heard of any rave happening that night during the Mardi Gras and he heard everything. Not only that but the more he looked the more he didn't like the look in this girl Merci's eyes. Suddenly he had the thought that refusing her was a bad idea. Besides he wanted to know this rave he heard nothing about an if it turned out to be dangerous he couldn't handle these two.  
  
Remy threw out his arms, shrugged and grinned. "Sure, why not. Sounds like fun."  
  
"Cool," Merci said. "Meet us here an hour after sunset tomorrow."  
  
The thief took that as his cue to leave. He looked down at Rogue and gave her a warm smile. He leaned down, took her pale hand and kissed it, wondering at how cold she was.  
  
"Thank you for the candy," he breathed against her hand and left the room past Merci who closed the door after him.  
  
When Merci turned around, she found Rogue sitting up and glaring at her. "What?"  
  
"Why did you do that?" Rogue asked, obviously upset.  
  
"Fuck, you act like you don't want to see him again," Merci shot out.  
  
"But you know what's going to happen to him there."  
  
"Yeah, I do. So?"  
  
Rogue fell silent but kept looking at her.  
  
Merci smirked. "If you feel that strongly about him, bite him yourself tomorrow." She strolled into the bathroom for a shower, leaving Rogue on the bed. 


	17. The start of a big night

Remy LeBeau stood outside the hotel just off of Bourbon Street where his two dates for the night were staying. The sun had been down for about half an hour now but the street was far from quiet. Mardi Gras was still in full swing with the parade only one street over. Many people made there way too and from the party in different states of drunkenness. Nobody noticed Remy in the shadows of an alley across from the hotel.  
  
It was a perfect night really, warm and breezy, wafting all the scents of restaurants and bars into the streets and down the alley. Remy inhaled deep and sighed. He loved this city with all his heart, ever since he was a pup. The sights and the sounds of this truly unique city were home to him. He never wanted to leave it. From the sprawling swamps to the bustling riverfront, it was all familiar to him and everyone knew him. Friends greeted him wherever he went, even in the assassin's guild where a very fragile peace was being made between the thieves and them. Truly big things were about to happen.  
  
His Pere, the king of thieves he was called, was grooming him to take his place when the time came. Remy was 18 and by the rules of the guild had proven himself a man many times over already by his skill in the art of stealing and loosening a pretty girls legs.  
  
Much like the pretty girls across the way.  
  
His Pere would think him an ironclad fool for actually going back when he was caught in their room. What kind of idiot goes back to a place that you've been caught trying to rob? It was foolish and apt to get him killed one day. But he just couldn't help it. As sure as his Pere and friends would be that there were a platoon of cops of up there waiting for him he was even more sure that there wasn't. That the girls were alone and up there waiting for him.  
  
Now really, Remy was no fool. He was cocky and arrogant but he was no fool. As soon as that girl with the hair of blood came through the door, he knew she was bad news. Something about the way she walked and talked. And what she had said about fangs.  
  
Growing up near the bayou you hear a lot of tales about ghosts and the like and he's heard his fair share of vampire tales, never swallowing them since he was old enough to buy a drink. And here, that's old enough to reach the bar! And he had seen his share of gothic girls in his time, even bedded a few just to pass the time, never really his taste. But this girl, if he actually believed in these things.  
  
Remy snorted and lit a cigarette, thinking how childish he was being about this. He took a drag, the ember lightening his face into something that might look like a demons, with his red on black eyes.  
  
He tried to crush the idea but then he only had to think of looking into her eyes and seeing that she wanted to kill him and the surety that she could.  
  
Course surety didn't mean she actually could! He had a few tricks of his own if she thought she could take him. These city girls got so high of themselves sometimes!  
  
None of this mattered anyway, he had already decided that he was going to go into that hotel and meet them, let them take him to this rave the girl was talking about, while the other girl, Rogue had a look of fear in her eyes. Oh, he hadn't missed that at all!  
  
Something was going to happen there tonight, probably something going to be tried against him and he wanted to know what it was.  
  
He finished his cig and flicked it into the alley behind him.  
  
*****************************************  
  
Rahne St. Claire watched from the doorway as Kurt Wagner checked over his weapons. They had all come along way from the places and time they started. Kurt was the one who had seemed to make the easiest transition into this life. Rahne guessed that Kurt had to be flexible with life looking the way he is. His tail waved slowly back and forth as he tested the edge of his rapier, giving it a slash this way and that for good measure before checking over his side arms.  
  
Storm had insisted that each of them carry guns with the special silver coated bullets. Rahne smiled at the memory of asking Storm why they didn't have solid silver bullet and she had made one of her all too rare jokes, stating, "do you think I am made of money?"  
  
The silver coats worked just as well but to Rahne it looked like Storm was made out of money, they stayed in the best hotels, finest clothes both for battle and the street and all the equipment they needed. Kurt though that she had a lot of African diamonds invested somewhere. Rahne wouldn't be surprised.  
  
She was dressed in what she had come to call her fight costume. It had taken awhile to figure out something that could adapt to her changes. The first thing she had gotten was the collar. It was made of metal chains that twined lightly together and had a few well hidden magnets. If she changed and her neck grew, instead of strangling her, the magnets let go and the collar expanded, lax chains growing taunt to the bigger neck It was to protect her from bites. The rest of her costumes were variation on this theme. In all she had ten dark red plates over her torso, arms, back and pelvis. When she changed the magnets holding them together would detach and allow her room to grow. When she had first been told about this she had serious doubts!  
  
But it worked! And finished off with the mandatory black coat.  
  
Kurt's uniform was basically his old one with more light weight armor.  
  
"You know, you can come in. no need to hold the doorway up," Kurt said, his back still to her. Rahne pushed away from the doorjamb with a smile and walked in.  
  
"I dinnae want to interrupt," she said.  
  
"Nonsense! My time is always free to eat, sleep, fight vampires and chat with adorable Scottish girls," he said smoothly. Rahne couldn't stop the giggle that bubbled up her throat. He was always flirting, even with Ms. Munroe. He was probably the only thing keeping any semblance of humor alive in her.  
  
"That's nice to know," she said, sitting down next to him on the floor." Storm was using the living room for her meditations and ye know."  
  
Kurt nodded, "and it got to cold in there for you." He finished.  
  
"Aye. It gets really bad when she mediates," she added.  
  
Kurt sighed, "I know. She wasn't always like this you know, its just because."  
  
".of her nephew," Rahne added. She knew the whole story from beginning to end.  
  
Evan, that girl Rogue, the fight in the club, the X-men. But Kurt always felt as if he had to apologize for her and the blast of arctic wind she brought into any room, like her very soul was a block of ice now.  
  
Kurt nodded glumly and crossed his legs, resting his elbow on a thigh and his chin in his hand. "At one time, she used to bring so much calm light and warmth into a room, like just by being there, you knew everything was going to be alright," he would have gone on but Rahne stopped him.  
  
"Lets not talk of her right now."  
  
"Why not?" Kurt asked a little offended that she would speak that way of Storm. Rahne saw it and calmed him.  
  
"Kurt, I love Ms. Munroe, she saved me from the streets, took me, showed me I could do something other then starve and sell meself in alleys. But I don't want to be depressed right now."  
  
Kurt understood and cracked a grin. "Yeah, its going to be a big one tonight."  
  
"The biggest, dinna kin?" Rahne said, a little excitement mixed with fear creeping into her words. " I heard her talking with another hunter over the phone. Mardi Gras is like Christmas for them, well except maybe for Halloween, but this is the biggest party of the year. So much drunk food around and all." She ended bitterly.  
  
"JA, do you know how hard it was to get the location and keep the dämons from knowing we know. Apparently last year they caught wind and took out nearly 20 hunters." Kurt said, the excitement getting to him.  
  
"Aye, so we very well could be dying tonight," Rahne said a little more seriously.  
  
"Nein, never think that way," Kurt said, grabbing her hand. "Never think that."  
  
She gave him a weird look; "I think that everytime we go out."  
  
Kurt chuckled, "you shouldn't be thinking such somber thoughts."  
  
"Are you going to take me mind of it then?" she said impishly.  
  
"Maybe," he said softly, bringing her hand to his lips and kissing along the knuckles  
  
Rahne froze and then shivered, stunned, aroused and confused all at once.  
  
"I know this is coming out of nowhere," Kurt whispered, pulling her closer to him. "But tonight is a big night and your right. It could be a trap. So I was thinking you might want to spend some time until then doing something more fun then waiting." When she was close enough he bent his head to her neck, kissing and so very lightly, drawing a fang across her neck.  
  
Rahne shuddered more and gave in, after all, she did have a bit of a crush on the German boy and god knew this might be the last night they saw even if the info was accurate. There was talk that there might be over 300 down there and Storm thought there might be 50 hunters, the largest amount ever to be together in one place but still outnumbered.  
  
This might be her last time.  
  
Rahne brought Kurt's head up to her own and kissed him deeply, parting his mouth and finding his tongue, drawing it into her own mouth and twisting it with hers. They never broke the kiss as they shed there armor, 3 months of practice making short work of it. When she was naked Kurt pulled her to him, feeling her body, the hard and lean muscles, built up from fighting and killing. His body was much the same though longer.  
  
In a frenzy she pushed him back onto the floor, straddling him, she couldn't believe how wet she was already with about two seconds of foreplay. She felt the scorching shaft of him brushing against her aroused clit and she almost came. She grunted into his mouth and reached between them, gripping and guiding.  
  
Kurt gasped out "mein gott" when Rahne put him inside of her body, gripping him so tightly and sliding down the whole length. He gripped her hips hard and held her still, afraid he might cum. They were both panting and moan anyway as they grinded lightly against each other. Kurt slit open his eyes and caught the sight of her, atop him, mouth open in panting breath, short red hair standing out against her pale face that was no becoming flushed, her small breasts, with gumdrop nipples heaving, the redness spreading across them and he lost it.  
  
He bucked up his hips and came hard, like his whole soul was shooting out the tip of his cock to merge with hers. She shuddered with him, grinding hard on him until she was spent and flopped down.  
  
When they could catch there breath they spoke.  
  
Rahne. "Wow."  
  
Kurt. "Yeah, wow."  
  
Rahne. "Wanna go again?"  
  
Kurt. "JA!" 


	18. A walk in the dark

(A/N: things will pick up next chapter)  
  
The thing about vampires is that they are arrogant. Even most vampires will tell you that and with pride. They have been at the top of the food chain for thousands of years and this has given them an almost genetic disposition of superiority.  
  
So when any other species might have cancelled the biggest gathering of their kind in any given year, they didn't. Not even when the number of vampire hunters were at there highest and vampire deaths climbing. As a species they really think they are invincible.  
  
But of course they aren't stupid.  
  
Underneath New Orleans is a very extensive sewer system with some parts of it dating back a hundred years or more.  
  
There are many dark and forgotten corners of the underground maze that haven't been seen in well over half a century. And in the heart of all this vampires have drawn together for the greatest party of the year.  
  
Remy had picked up his "dates" from their hotel, being a fashionable five minutes late. The two girls had looked like sin in lace and leather. Merci in a filmy see through black blouse that didn't hide the fact she wore no bra clashed erotically against her long and loose red hair. Black lipstick and red eye shadow made up her face. Remy never thought a girl could wear that much red and black still look attractive. With tight leather pants and what he was sure would be blood red hooker boots, she was complete. His back brain all but screamed vampire at him. It wasn't the clothes or the make up. It was the way she walked, the way she talked. The way she acted like she was merde de reine and didnt fear death. Everything about her screamed not human.  
  
And then there was Rogue.  
  
She seemed more human then anyone he had ever known.  
  
None of the arrogance that Merci had. And her movements, while fluid didn't seem otherworldly. She wore a low cut, dark purple sleeveless shirt with a green meshed blouse over it. A black leather skirt showed toned and pale legs leading down to black hooker boots. Her face was made up in deep purple lipstick and slight green eye shadow.  
  
While outside his demeanor hadn't changed inside his throat had closed up when he saw Rogue. The other one he didn't much care about but Rogue was something else. He wondered how she could look so strong and vulnerable all at once.  
  
Merci looked at him and gave a laugh, "so you like her, huh?"  
  
Remy had almost started at that. How the hell....? He just shrugged and said, "I must say I do like the view." Never taking his eyes off Rogue. If she had been able to Rogue would have blushed.  
  
Instead she said, "alraht, shows over, let go." And picked up a leather jacket and headed for the door.  
  
"Yeah, lets go lover-boy!" Merci crowed, putting her hand on his shoulder and shoving him towards the door.  
  
Faster then Merci had ever thought he could move he reached up and grabbed her wrist in a tight hold. He turned, taking off his shades as he did, red on black eyes giving her a deadly look.  
  
"Don' you ever try and push Remy. He don' like it." Remy said softly.  
  
Amusement danced in Merci's eyes. The guy had some bite in him! She didn't break the hold but looked him right back saying, "What makes you think I give a flying fuck what Remy likes?"  
  
"Well when Remy get mad, people get hurt." Remy tightened his grip on her wrist. "And we just met and Remy would hate to see you get hurt."  
  
Remy was the second person that night to be surprised by someone's speed when he found himself a foot in the air with Merci's hand clamped on his throat. "And what makes you think it would be me getting hurt." Merci said, flashing the fangs she had been hiding till then.  
  
'Mon dieu!' his frantic mind thought. She really was a vampire! "C'est impossible!"  
  
One hand went fishing in his jacket pocket for his deck of cards when a blur came at Merci and knocked her back a step, breaking her grip.  
  
"Merci, that enough!" Rogue screamed. "JUST STOP IT!"  
  
Remy hit the ground in a crouch gasping for breath, one card between his fingers hidden in his pocket. It started to glow faintly, ready to be thrown if Merci tried anything again.  
  
Merci only stood there laughing at them. "Okay, okay!" she apologized, holding her hands up. "I'm sorry, I won't break your little boy toy." Merci grabbed her own jacket and headed out the door.  
  
Rogue stood with her back to Remy for long seconds before turning to him. He was still crouched, his heart thrumming and hand in pocket. "What de hell you be?"  
  
Rogue sighed and looked down at him. Thinking that no matter what he was going to die tonight and he didn't really get it yet. She could see it all over his face. Could almost smell it.  
  
"I'm a vampire, sugah." She said simply, showing her own fangs. "So's Merci. We're going to a vampire gathering tonight. Biggest of the year if I hear right."  
  
"And if I don' want to go?" Remy asked. But he already knew the answer.  
  
"Then I gotta kill ya," Rogue's voice resonated with real regret, explaining. "You know, I like you. I really do. But I can't let you live, not after you know about us. So it's either come to the party and have fun and then die theah or you die right here. You gotta make the choice."  
  
Remy weighed his options in his head. Okay, he was up against two vampires. The word vampires echoed in his head. From what he'd seen he probably couldn't take them both and the other one was probably right outside. But he might have a chance to get away later.  
  
Rogue followed the gist of his thinking through his auras as the colours shifted and shaded. She had become really good at reading them. Merci said if she really tried she might be able to actually read thoughts. All vampires strong in seeing auras could but Rogue didn't want that power. The ability to feel her victims dying...  
  
Remy stood up slowly and took his hand out of his pocket. "D'accord. I go with you tonight, petite. But you might find Remy harder to kill den you tink."  
  
Rogue gave him a sad smile and said with all sincerity and pity. " I'm sure you are."  
  
Remy heard the pity and his gut clenched.  
  
So now he was following these two vampire girls through the mazes of the sewers, taking turns seemingly at random until Rogue pointed out to him faint markers like hieroglyphics beside or above tunnels. He couldn't even make one out unless he was walked right up to it.  
  
At first they had kept him in the middle, Merci in front and Rogue in the back but after awhile that wasn't necessary since he became so lost that even if he did get away he might roam the tunnels until he died.  
  
Eventually they entered a tunnel that was pitch black. He reached a hand forward for obstacles when a cool hand took his and guided him. Right away he knew it was Rogue.  
  
"Thanks, petite. Don' know what Remy do without you," he said, following her through more tunnels just as dark.  
  
"Don't mention it," she said as they kept going and then suddenly stopped.  
  
A gruff voice came out of the darkness. "Who's the meat?"  
  
Merci giggled. "Oh just a snack for later."  
  
Suddenly rough hands grabbed him and pinned him into a concrete wall that really hurt. He felt something cold and metal against his head and knew it was a gun as hands searched him. He stood very still as they did and all they found was 3 decks of cards and a foot long pipe of some kind. Someone grabbed his wrist and shoved is shirtsleeve up. He still didn't resist until he felt something hot touching the inside of his forearm, burning and branding him.  
  
"What're yall doing?" Rogue yelled, sounds of feet shuffling.  
  
"New orders," the gruff voice said. "From the top. Deal is all humans in company of vampires are glyphed tonight, no questions asked.  
  
They let him go and Rogue grabbed his hand pulled him along. His arm burned and he was scared to see what they had done to him. Faintly he heard the buzzing and rotor sound of video cameras moving up above his head. Probably infrared though these people seemed to have no problem seeing in the dark.  
  
He heard what sounded like a huge door opening in front of them and then close behind them.  
  
Very faintly now he could here music and more cameras. Then a door in front of them opened up wide and strobbing lights filled the darkness  
  
*************************************  
  
About a mile away in a nondescript shop basement, a band of vampire hunters prepared for their night.  
  
The place was packed. About fifty of them had gathered. The most hunters that had ever gathered in one place. Their mission that night was to take out the Mardi Gras gathering.  
  
There was some talking and laughter but mostly people just kept to themselves or tightly knit units and worked out plans. Hunters were not used to working in such a large group and many had doubts that such an arrangement would work. But when they word had gotten around about who it was that had called them all together to take out the gathering they had answered.  
  
The man himself was probably the most legendary vampire killer ever to have lived.  
  
What other sent jolts of fears into a vampires heart like a silver stake but the one called Blade? 


	19. Plans set in motion

Hard rock buffeted Remy Lebeau's ears as he stepped into what had to be the most staggering rave he had ever seen in his life. Walking in he knew immediately that not one person in this room was human. The young thief felt like a moron for not seeing it earlier in the two girls who had brought him here. Maybe it was like not seeing the deadly force of a drop of water until you saw a tidal wave coming at you.

The massive underground cavern must have been as big as two football fields with hundreds of vampires jammed into the space, moving with the rattling bass the shocked his ears. He doesn't know how de didn't hear it outside the door. Strobing lights hung in the corners and crevices of the vast space, giving the dancing vampires the snap shots of movement, giving them the demonic appearance they all strived for. Remy could see bars and all over the place, as well as a few corners that seemed to be reserved for making out.

That was until Remy realized that those people weren't making out. It was humans being eaten. The Cajun saw it happening everywhere in the shadows, he had trained himself to see pretty well in the dark with only a little light and his eyes showed him more then he wanted. It seemed that dark blood flowed everywhere.

A gentle but firm hand turned his horrified face from the carnage around him to a soft ghostly face. Rogue was taking his eyes away from everything but her. She leaned close to his ear, her cool breath on its cup.

"It's better if you don't look, there's nothing there you want to see," she whispered. He knew why she was stopping him seeing. She didn't want the thief to see what awaited him at the end of the night.

She was suddenly yanked away by a very excited Merci as another song was mixed into the previous around them.

"It's our fucking song! Come on! We have to dance to this," Merci yelled, dragging Rogue to the dancing throng. Remy watched them go and saw the shorter girl reluctantly smiling as she was dragged away to the tune of "living dead girl" by Rob Zombie.

"Figures," Remy muttered to himself, left alone. He guessed they weren't too worried about him escaping. As he scanned around it seemed like the only way out or in was the door they had come through and they were probably about a mile underground. The path they had taken here had been sloping downward the whole way.

Remy smirked. It was situations like these, when escape seemed impossible, that he really loved. He reminded himself that he had been in tough corners before and this was no different. Their mistake was giving him time to find a away out. Because if it was there, he would find it.

Further away was a group of people more concerned with getting into the gathering then getting out.

In an abandoned warehouse about a mile up and a mile aboveground, about fifty vampire hunters waited to here the plan for the night, each one tense and ready for the night that was ahead.

Kurt and Rahne were the youngest ones there and got many looks from the other hunters. They were pretty sure they were the only mutants there along with Storm.

"Hey," Rahne whispered excitedly, pointing to a hard looking man, chewing on a cigar and polishing a knife as big as Kurt's forearm. "That's Russle Manchester! He's the one who cleaned out that nest up in Canada all by himself."

"And over there is Titan Sanders with Katey Lyons," Kurt pointed out, looking at a huge man with a tiny woman taking in a corner."

Rahne laughed nervously and turned to Kurt. "D'ya eva think that we're a wee bit out of our league here?"" Rahne said, her brogue coming on stronger when she is nervous. Since joining with Kurt and Ororo she had never felt like such a kid as sitting in this room.

"The thought had crossed my mind, lieb," Kurt replied. His fur felt like it was standing on end with the tension in the room. By practice Hunters did come together in such large groups, afraid their own tactic of attacking vampire gatherings would be used against them. Everybody was on edge but eager for the night to start. They had all been brought here by the legendary Blade, and even to lone wolves like them, that demanded respect.

Just then Storm drifted into the room. A lot of the hunters took note, having heard tails of the mutant that hunted and eradicated vampires wherever they were. She had a reputation for being cold and heartless in her pursuit. Not without reason either. She found her charges and strided over to them.

"Has he arrived yet?" She asked one Storm had reached Kurt and Rahne. A chorus of "nae" and "nein" answered her.

Storm was getting impatient to be off. She had been trying to track down the creature that had killed her son and she was sure to be at this gathering. She had to take it before she slipped through Ororo's fingers again.

Everybody in the room suddenly went quiet and Rogue turned around to see him standing there in the middle of the room as if he had always been there. He stood above six feet and was already in full battle gear. He looked like he never took it off. And as far as anybody knew, he never did.

"Whistler," the dark half-vampire rumbled. An old man with a bad limp and long hair came in carrying a case with him. He dropped it on the ground and started to open it to reveal a high tech projector. The lens was facing up which confused Kurt and Rahne until Whistler flipped a switch and a hologram of the sewer systems came up.

"This is where the gathering is happening," Blade said, getting right to it and pointing to a vast empty space near the bottom of the screen. Nobody had been told the plan before in case someone was captured and forced to talk.

"Everyone will split up into five teams," Blade went on, point to five separate sewer tunnels on the map. "And use these tunnels close to the roof of the gathering to get into position…"

"And how are we going to get through all that concrete and steel without those suckers noticing?" Russle Manchester asked sarcastically.

"Maybe if you shut up and listen, you'd find out," Whistler said. Nobody had noticed him leave and return with five duffle bags on a cart.

Whistler looked around and stated

"These here will not only get you in but kill off maybe half the suckers in there all in one go!"


	20. Away in A way out

Remy LeBeau was leaning against a stone wall about a mile under New Orleans, looking for all the world like any slightly disinterested person. He didn't let it show that he was, in fact, hyper aware of everything that was going on around him. You would be too if you were being held prisoner by hundreds of vampires, every single one of them looking at you as if they wanted to find out just how spicy your Creole blood was.

The fear he had been denying up to now was churning inside of him hard. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face and he jumped when he felt something wet and cool lick it off. He whipped around to see a girl with black streaked blonde hair looking at him with a look that on any other girl might have been lust. But he wasn't deluding himself.

It was hunger.

"Mmmm," she sighed, licking her lips. "You're scared…that makes you taste really good!"

Remy tried to back away but she quickly wrapped iron arms around him and nuzzled her nose against his neck, nipping lightly at the skin, playing with him. Remy struggled to get free until he felt a hand on his chest, shoving him and the hungry vampire apart.

"Back off!" Rogue hissed, baring her fangs a little. "He's mine, ya hear?"

The blonde hissed a little back before disappearing into the crowd. Rogue turned to Remy and pulled him close, bringing her mouth close to the side of his head. Remy had the thought he was only saved so she could eat him herself when he felt her lips at his ear saying, "news flash, sugah. Vampires can smell fear."

Remy, never one to actually admit he's scared spoke softly into her ear. "Wasn't scared, Cher. Just worried you might be jealous of seeing me with another woman. Remy didn't want you getting the wrong idea and be mad with him."

Rogue felt a shiver run through him when she felt his warm, moist breath against her ear. The vibration of his words seemed to travel all through her body, seeming to make her whole body pulse and shiver. She suddenly became very aware of his body against hers and the heat he emitted. Saliva flooded her mouth and she pulled away.

"And what would give you the idea I would care?" she said sarcastically before turning and walking back into the crowd. Remy smirked a little, even in this situation liking the effect he had on her. He followed close behind, thinking it might be best to keep close to the girl who might have saved his life twice tonight. He stopped and let her go, remembering what he had been doing.

Remy took a deep breath and went back to his wall.

The wall he was casually leaning against had holes in it. Many holes. He had found it after confirming that the thick steel door at one end of the huge lozenge shaped space was indeed the only way out and in. it was guarded by huge vampires who must have been linebackers in their previous life. They didn't rely on their size alone to ward off trouble. The machine guns they carried would do that work for them.

A little sigh had escaped him when he had realized this, the first doubts of him getting out slowly creeping up the back of his mind. Then he sighed again. And took a deep breath.

This place was locked tight with one door. No vents, shafts, port holes or any other possible escape route. Master thief that he is, he saw nothing.

Then how the hell was he breathing?

He wasn't sure if vampires needed to breath but he guessed that they might want their "snacks" to remain alive long enough for their blood to be nice and warm when dancing had worked up their thirst and hunger. So where was the air coming from?

He searched again, more thoroughly, avoiding bumping into anyone in the crowded area. The place was packed and hot and reeked of the many bodies there. It was a strange scent they gave off. Not exactly unpleasant but wild and strong, maybe what a lion would smell like after a day of hunting and killing.

And of course he could smell the blood, that cloying tang was everywhere. Remy didn't have to need a frame of reference to know what huge amounts of spilled blood smelled like and that was what it was, a thick, metallic smell that left an aftertaste in the back of his throat. It told him exactly what was happening every time he passed one of those dark corners and it made him want to retch. Dark shapes moved and jerked in those corners but not in lust. At least not for the one dying it wasn't.

If he didn't find a way out, he knew it would be him dying and being bled dry in one of those corners. Probably that _chienne_ Merci taking the first bite.

At the far end of the room, opposite the door and at the end of the lozenge was the wall. It had many holes in it that could have been there for any reason but when Remy leaned against it he could feel a faint draft making its way in. It was dark at this end and probably not safe for him to hang around but this could be his only way out.

Anybody glancing his way would only have seen a human knocking his hand against the wall and nodding his head with the beat. Remy was trying to find out how thick this wall was. After a few raps he decided it was very thick. Thick enough to that he couldn't tell if it was four feet or forty feet deep. Trying to peer into one of the black tubes showed him nothing but shadow.

He looked around and spotted his "dates" in the crowd. The one he didn't like was currently grinding between two guys who were not at all shy about where they hands roamed. Merci for her part must have thought exploration a fine thing since she was letting them slip hands and fingers into her clothes as they moved to the music. They were only still pictures in the strobes that flashed, like pornographic stills from a bizarre magazine. The one he did like was seated on a couch off to the side by one of the many bars. Remy could very well imagine her this way in a thousand other clubs, just watching the people float by and nodding her head softly to the music, lost in her own thoughts. If someone had suddenly told him that her life as a vampire had started this way he would not have been surprised.

He turned his attention back to the wall and tried to think over the noise. He had two options: one, try and blast through this wall and hope he broke through before hundreds of vampires tore him apart, or two, try and go through the guards at the front and hope he could kill them and get through the door and deal with any guards on the other side before hundreds of vampires tore him apart.

Seemed like _six de l'un d'eux, une demi-douzaine de l'autre_ to Pere LeBeau's little boy.

"_Remy give an inch off _ill bite_ for a distraction right now_…" he thought wryly.

That's when things started happening fast.

When they had been going over the night's plan, Blade had said that the hardest part was going to be surprising them.

Whistler had given a smoker's rattling chuckle and said "You think that's going to be the hardest part, kid? Just getting 'em organized is going to be about fifty hemorrhoids worth of pain in the ass!"

Blade sometimes hated it how Whistler was rarely wrong.

"We should jus' go in there and smoke em out!" Rustle Manchester yelled for about the tenth time in his Irish accent. Gesturing obnoxiously with his arms for attention leather and belts creaked and jingled all over his body. "It worked for me in Canada! Blood suckers never knew what hit 'em!"

"That was a fucking brass ass miracle you actually pulled that off and you know it!" Katey Lyons had yelled back. Her short brown hair was frizzed out like she had gotten a shock. Saying it was untameable like her was Titan's favourite joke. She stood about four foot eight in her combat boots but her voice carried well and clear over the din of fifty hunters all knowing what the best plan of attack was.

"Shut it, Katey!" he shot back with a pointed finger. Tattoos ran all over this hand and over most of his body, including his face. "You've never taken out as many as I have in a go! Go find a corner with Titan and do something useful with your fucking gob!"

Titan was just quick enough to snag the back of his wife's jacket before she rushed the Irish and rearranged his face for him. Titan, a burly six' six and two hundred and sixty pounds of muscle, was husband and opposite to Katey. He simply gave a deep rumbling sigh, holding his piece and his wife's thrashing, swearing form.

This wasn't the only fight that was on the verge of breaking out as the gathered hunters argued over how to proceed that night. It didn't seem to matter that Blade and Whistler had already formed a plan. Vampire hunters by trade rarely went around in teams and certainly never one this large. Whistler had been wondering what a bunch of alpha wolves in one room would be like. Now he was seeing.

As for Blade he had known this was going to be hard, had even tried to think of a way he could take out the gathering on his own but couldn't think of one where he came out alive. So he and Whistler had come up with one that involved a lot of help.

Too bad the help wasn't helping.

He was just considering cracking a few skulls to get everyone's attention again (that dumbass Manchester would have been his first choice) when a blinding white bolt of lightning lashed the ceiling, giving off a great crack of thunder that had most people covering their ears and cringing as small chunks of debris rained down on the crowd.

Everyone went dead quiet in the aftermath and looked at Ororo Munroe.

She was wreathed in great crackling streams of electricity, her eyes a glowing bluish white.

When she was sure she had everyone's attention she said "I did not come here to listen to adult squabble like children in the playground. I came like you because I was asked to come by one who has killed more vampires than anyone in this room and has survived more than any of us. Now either hear what he has to say or leave," filaments of lightning coursed from her eyes and over her white hair, crackling wildly. "I will brook nothing else."

Storm didn't have to turn around to know that Kurt and Rahne were at her back and ready. They showed none of the nervousness they felt at staring down a room full of killers.

There were many angry glares but nobody said anything, knowing better then cross the one known as Storm. She had developed a nasty reputation for ruthlessness in a short time and nobody was stupid enough to test it. Stupid hunters didn't live long.

Storm shot Blade a sharp look that spoke more clearly than words. "_Go on, I don't have all night_."

Blade raised an eyebrow behind his dark glasses and chuckled. He hadn't been sure about including the three mutants in his plans but Whistler pointed out her abilities might come in handy. He still hated when Whistler was right but was glad he listened to the old man.

"Manchester isn't far off actually," Blade said, shooting the Irish a hard look just in time to make him shut his tattooed trap again before it could get up and run. "How easy this goes depends on a question…" he trailed off. I cocked his head to the side and looked at the weather witch.

"Just how strong is that wind of yours?"


	21. It starts

Chapter 21

When it happened it happened fast.

At first Remy had the bemused notion that someone must have drugged him even though he had taken nothing to drink all night. Right before his eyes the tiniest flecks of some silver substance was wafting through the holes of the wall he was against. They flashed in the quickly blinking lights like shining snowflakes. They were actually beautiful but off putting in that he couldn't figure them out. Looking around at the debauchery of the place, vampires dancing, feasting and some even screwing all over as the event peaked, Remy didn't think pretty little snowflakes really fit the ambiance.

A vampire passing by paused for a second and rubbed his chest like he had heart burn and gave a dry rattling cough, the kind that really tears your chest from the inside. Then others around him also started to cough. First they were no more than just clearing their throat but then everyone near Remy's side of the huge space starting hacking and making horrible choking sounds. The Cajun stared in amazement as some started coughing up blood and a few even gouts of fire like some circus trick. Vampires started reeling away from where Remy stood. He felt fine but showed confused amazement on his face. He could see that in a few seconds a full on stampede would by driving towards the only exit, probably trampling partyers as it flowed like a tidal wave. Remy LeBeau didn't know if trampling could kill a vampire but the ones who fell might wish it did.

Some kind of alarm might have been raised then that something was very wrong but then something else wrong loudly announced itself. At the opposite end there was some kind of loud boom. It was thunderous enough to be heard over the reverberating bass of the music. Remy could even see dark shapes that could only be people flung into the air and come crashing down into the churning crowd that only seconds ago had been trying to push to the door. That end of the space was lit up bright as day by great streaming bolts of lightning that crawled along the walls and ceiling. A second later the screaming started.

The mutant called Storm stood in a long neglected sewer pipe. Its ceiling yawned high over her head in the darkness but still she was underground. In the dark.

Her breathing was a little fast but that was the only outward sign that she was in any kind of distress. Inside a part of her very soul was screaming to GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!

Evan on his skateboard. Evan in class. Evan walking with her. And she also kept in mind the image of the one who had killed him. Rogue was here tonight. Ororo could taste it, feel it in her very bones. She had never been so close to finally ending the creature that had killed her blood and take the vengeance that was hers.

That's how a severe claustrophobic like Ororo Munroe was able to stand a mile underground in the pitch black and not fall to pieces. She waited like a statue for her signal.

Blade stood ten feet behind her, catching everything. The way her pulse raced and her breath shortened. He knew she was afraid but admired how she barely let it show. Anybody else would just see a beautiful woman standing serenely ready in the dark.

He gave a slight grunt to clear his thoughts as his wristwatch buzzed it was time. Storm's two brats should be in position and pumping the silver aerosol into the gathering. If he was right all the guests that had a severe allergy to silver would be rushing for the only door. A feral grin curled his lips.

Gruffly he asked Storm, "You'll be able to tell?"

She didn't bother turning around when she said in an ice cold voice, "Do not question my abilities. Simply tell me when."

Blade could swear the temperature actually dropped a few degrees. "_Do not piss off this lady_." He thought to himself and not without some respect and he had to admit arousal. Just something about her…

"Do it." He said.

Storm raised hands towards the opening of the tunnel they were in. There were many off shoots between here and the gathering but Storm said she could control where the wind went. At first all blade could sense was a dropping pressure as she gathered the air from the tunnel and the surrounding tunnels before her, drawing it together into a hard churning mass that Blade was starting to see. It was small at first but quickly grew. A roiling mass of wind and mist with licks of lightning sparking in it. It was silent and ominous, like seeing pitch black clouds on the horizon of a clear sunny day. The kind of cloud that bring a tornado.

And that's exactly what she hurled down the sewer tunnels, what some meteorologists would have called an F2 tornado but so tightly packed it hurtled down the stone paths like a train. It howled like one as she guided it with her will, not letting any of its power bleed off into side paths. It picked up speed and power and by the time it reached the steel door and its guards there it was unstoppable. It hit the door like battering ram, ripping it off its hinges and hurling it into the space beyond. The guards were no more than debris in the storm's wake, being thrown helter skelter into the crowd. The tornado raged into the room with the boom Remy had heard and the lightning trapped inside spraying all over the space inside the door, scorching any who were unlucky enough to be near.

Then riding on the wind, disks like thick Frisbees came soaring into the space.

Storm having full control of the wind and everything in it felt when they reached the wide open space.

"Now." She said. The two way radio in her ear picked it up and sent it to Whistler who with a grin hit a button on the remote control he held in his hand.

In the huge room that had become a huge trap, the disks exploded, raining death.

Rogue had been trained by the best to tell when things were staring to go wrong. Her senses went into overdrive the moment vampires started coughing and retreating from the back of the club. She knew Remy was back there and even wondered for an instant if he had done something in a mad bid to save his life. A second before a depressed sigh would escape her she heard the huge boom from the front of the club, could even feel the impact of the sound it made. She clearly saw the steel door blown into the air with a bunch of guards like there were all tiddly winks. She was off the couch and about to move to find Merci when the gouts of lightning licked along the walls and ceiling and knew immediately who it was that was attacking.

Storm was here. Here to kill her for what she did to Evan. As if called the ghost of Evan in her head rumbled in his box as if he felt his Aunt close by. She stood numb and watched as some kind of disks, maybe a dozen, whisked into the room on the air. Her keen vampire eyes saw the slots in the side of them open and then hundreds of projectiles came exploding out in great bangs.

Her paralysis broke and it saved her life. Instinct took over and raised humps of bone all over her body protecting her, what felt like several needles bounced and broke off the bone that was now under her clothes and covering her face but all around her when others were hit by them they simply swelled and exploded in great bursts of gore and blood.

Rogue looked around in a panic and saw Merci frantically trying to stay alive. She was fast but wouldn't be able to keep alive for long no matter how she moved or what she hid behind. Rogue was across the room in an instant and tackled her. Merci gave an indignant squawk but Rogue held her down and called on Evan's power to grow more bone out of her back. It ripped through her clothes and curved down around them in a dome. They were safe for now but the two girls could hear the screams, the occasional tink of a needle bouncing of Rogue's shield and the wet burst of people exploding.

When Storm had said "now" the hunters had started streaming down the tunnels. They hadn't been able to get too close and they had to run awhile before they got to the now gaping hole into the gathering place. Whistler and some other techies had been able to hack into the cameras and create a loop so anyone watching them wouldn't have seen the hunters sneaking through the tunnels as close as they could without the guards sensing them.

Now they were bolting down the tunnels and into the opening, seeing absolute carnage. Whistler had explained what he had pulled out of his bags of tricks earlier in the evening. Disks that were spring loaded with a special kind of anticoagulant that while not fatal to humans in small doses would cause a vampire's blood to boil and expand, eventually causing the victim to simply explode.

When someone asked if it had been tested Blade simply smiled his dangerous grin and said "Frost".

A low murmur passed through the hunters at that name. The incident with Deacon Frost already more legend than fact.

They had just needed a way to get the disks in and that's where Storm and her charges had helped. Kurt and Rahne hadn't exactly been thrilled to be sidelined, going down dark abandoned tunnels to find the back wall with the air holes, but being the youngest you got stuck with the shit work. They had pumped the silver in right when the time told them too, the rest of the party too far and through too much concrete to hear their radio transmission. Their job after was to wait there in case they breached the wall from the inside. If that happened they would set off their own disks.

Before they left Ororo told them they actually had the most dangerous job since they would be strictly on their own without help. However, now waiting with nothing to do as the "fun" stuff happened though five feet of rock, they debated that.

Through the holes in the wall they were able to hear, to Rahne at least, the craptacular beat of euro mixed songs.

They were both leaning against the wall bored now that the initial rush of securing their position had worn off.

"Do ya think we'll be seeing any action tonight?" Rahne asked Kurt. She was absently poking her fingers into the holes. The amusement of doing this and shooting Kurt smouldering looks had worn off after the first fifteen minutes of it.

"Not if the plan goes the way _Furchgift_ wants it to," the demon looking boy sighed. Kurt had thought it amusing to try and come up with a cool sounding German name for Blade, so far that and _Todklinge_ had been his only attempts and Rahne didn't think either would stick.

They had now been here a half hour and releasing the silver had been anticlimactic. The machine was ridiculously easy to use, consisting off just a steel tank and several hoses to be put into the wall. Now they could start to hear the screams and then a big explosion followed by what could only be gunfire. "If it goes how he wants, it'll be over before it begins, liebe."

That's when the wall behind them started to shake.


	22. Possible escape

Chapter 22

Remy didn't know what was going on and he didn't care, he knew this was his chance.

At the door they had taken his staff and his cards but with a talent like his, weapons were everywhere.

He grabbed a discarded bottle from the floor as chaos roared around him. He could now here the sound of automatic gunfire over the music that was somehow still being blasted into the air. He barely needed to concentrate anymore as he tapped the latent kinetic energy hidden in its molecules. If Remy had actually been able to see the atoms he would have seen them starting to weaken in fundamental ways while they moved, starting to leak potent and volatile energy. All they need to finally collapse and explode was a catalyst.

Being thrown at a wall worked nicely.

When the bottle hit the wall the molecules broke apart with a bang. Enough concussive force was released that if it had been thrown at a person they would have at least lost a piece of their bodies. As it was it only made a fist sized hole in the concrete.

"Guess I need something bigger," he mused. Right then he was tackled from behind and driven into the floor, a couple of bodies holding him down.

"What the fuck is going on?" Merci asked even though it was insanely obvious what was happening.

"Think the parties been crashed," Rogue drawled as they huddled under her bone shield. Whatever it was they were using didn't seem to affect her bone powers and she was grateful for that as the barrage went on.

"Fucking impossible! All that security and meeting way down here-," Merci went on for a bit but Rogue was barely listening. She was concentrating on deciding when to move, because eventually they would have to. Not only were they really conspicuous but if Storm really was part of this group then she would recognize the bone shield right away and not hesitate to blow it apart.

"I think Storm is here," she finally said, interrupting Merci's indignant rant. The tinks on her shield had stopped but now she was hearing gunfire.

Merci slumped and rolled her eyes at the same time. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me!"

"Nope. Was a tornado took out the door I think. Didn't you see the lightning?" Rogue asked thinking of the angry bolts that had swarmed the ceiling and walls.

Merci grunted and admitted, "thought it was just a really cool light show…"

"The gosh darn DOOR was blown off its hinges!"

"I was busy!" Merci huffed.

Rogue rolled her own eyes. "Were there one or two of 'em?"

Thinking back to how after the dance her two guys had dragged her into a corner and started taking off her clothes Merci said, "well it started out with two but you know how a crowd can gather."

"No I don't," Rogue said evenly.

Merci looked up at her and said seriously, "you could if you let it."

"Not the time, Merci," Rogue ended it. "You ready to move?"

With a coy smile Merci said, "I'm always ready!"

"Let's go!" Rogue said pulling the shield back into herself quickly, both girls shot to their feet. Far in the back of Rogue's mind she knew this might be a hopeless situation. All around her vampires and hunters were fighting but it was obvious the hunters were winning. They commanded the only exit and were slowly corralling their enemies to the back of the huge space, to corner and kill them.

Wolverine had drilled into his students that whenever you knew your enemy expected you to act one way, always do the other. Vampires with their arrogance would always fight if they could and only retreat as a last resort. Rogue wasn't so vampire yet as to see that was a dumb idea in this case.

Merci was actually moving to the front with a feral smile when Rogue grabbed her and dragged her to the mostly deserted back.

They arrived just in time to see Remy throwing his charged bottle at the wall and creating his less than stellar hole.

"He's a mutant," Rogue thought a split second before she heard a high whine approaching from behind her. If she hadn't been a vampire Remy LeBeau would have died that night. With ghastly speed Rogue spun to see the small rocket grenade soaring towards the back wall, all the vampires having dived out of the way. Without thought she gripped Merci tighter and threw them both at the Cajun's back, tackling him to the ground. The grenade just missed them and hit the back wall exploding with a deafening roar.

Debris rained down on the three, chunks of rock pelting them as they choked on a cloud of concrete dust.

"V_as-te-faire foutre_," Remy chocked out coughing from the dust and two girls lying on top of him. Neither of them knew what he said or cared as they coughed with him.

When the dust had cleared a little they saw that what had been a modest fist made by Remy was now a huge hole two feet deep and still crumbling around the edges.

"Can you finish blasting that hole through to the otha' side?" Rogue finally chocked out her accent thickening.

Remy didn't bother asking questions as everything in his mind was bent towards getting out of this death trap of a party.

"Maybe if it's not too thick," he said as they all struggled to their feet. "I'll need some heavier t'ings to charge," he added. He didn't totally understand it but he knew that the heavier and denser something was, the stronger the explosion. He thought it was possible to charge the wall itself and detonate it but had never tried and wasn't sure he could localize it to one place. If the whole wall blew, made from dense rock as it was he could kill everybody,

"Well ya got lots ammo lying around," Rogue drawled, flicking a dismissive hand down at the ground, not taking her eyes off the battle in front of them. The music had finally been cut off somehow and now only the sounds of battle were beating the air. Even though the vampires fought fiercely they were slowly being pushed back towards the three.

Remy looked around and saw what she meant. When the wall was hit great chunks of cement were blown out. Different sizes littered the ground, all the "heavier t'ings" he could need.

Ever since the time he thought he had lost Whistler and rampaged through Deacon Frost's building Blade hadn't killed a human. To this day he secretly felt guilt for it even though he knew they had no doubt murdered for reasons even less understandable then food. Still, he hadn't killed a human since.

Right now he was in dangerous peril of falling off that wagon.

He and Storm had reached the blown apart door way just in time to see Rustle Manchester shoulder some kind of rocket launcher and aim it at the crowd.

Both Storm and he shouted at the same time "No!" Ororo adding "you idiot!" while Blade added "you motherfucking dumbass!"

Manchester either didn't hear or didn't care as you hit the trigger and gave a joy filled whoop as the grenade was spat from the launcher and soared for the milling vampires.

Both Storm and Blade had the same reasons for thinking it was the stupidest thing they had seen lately. With a vampire's reflexes a launched grenade was a slow moving target to them and while they held no allusions that humans might die tonight they had wanted to minimalize those deaths. The serum filled needles they had rained didn't kill humans but a hurled explosive would.

They watched as the huge crowd seemed to open up like a wave to let the projectile through. Blade managed to catch a quick glimpse of two girls tackling a boy to the ground before they could be hit. The boy and maybe the girl with the shorter hair were human. He lost sight of them when the crowd closed but the huge cloud of dust and rock that shot into the air was clear as day.

"_So much for no casualties_," he thought to himself as he strode forward.

Manchester was hooting like he'd killed them all with that one shot instead of just possibly killing two innocents. Blade simultaneously took out his gun out and started firing automatic rounds, killing several, and grabbed the launcher out of Manchester's hands even as the idiot was trying to reload it.

Manchester opened his gob to say something when Blade whipped off his glasses and gave the Irish his most dangerous look, silently telling him if he had something to say, he'd be saying it to his own colon.

Manchester wasn't that stupid. He shut up.

Storm breathed a little easier stepping into the room. They were still underground but the chamber was vast and high. She resisted the urge to take to the air as she normally would have in the days when she had been an X-man. The plan here was not to make herself a target and rain destruction but just to push the crowd back.

The tall woman raised her hands and the air bent to her will, roiling into a violent gale she slammed into the crowd of killers, pushing them back even as the rest of the hunters poured round after round of silver bullets into them. Even so she kept her eyes moving over the crowd, searching for that one familiar face in the crowd.

Looking for Rogue.

She prayed to her Goddess that a stray bullet didn't kill the girl.

Storm wanted that pleasure for herself.

Chapter 23


End file.
